VMware vCloud® Air™ SQL Early Access Release July 2015 VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com Copyright © 2015 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information. All other trademarks not owned by VMware are the property of their respective owners.
Contents 1. About This Reference Guide .............................................................................................4 2. Introducing vCloud Air SQL ...............................................................................................4 1.1 What is a vCloud Air SQL instance? ................................................................................. 4 1.2 What can I do with it?.....................................................................................................
4.4.5 Delete a Snapshot .......................................................................................... 25 4.5 Metering and Billing ...................................................................................................... 25 4.5.1 Billing Resources ............................................................................................ 25 4.5.2 Estimating Usage and Cost ............................................................................. 26 4.5.3 Viewing Usage ...
About This Reference Guide VMware® vCloud® Air™ SQL is a database-as-a-service offering that provides easy access to cloud-hosted SQL Server Instances. The service offers fully managed and isolated SQL Server instances, with automated administrative capabilities that free you to focus on business priorities.
You can add multiple databases to a SQL Server instance using SQL Server management tools. Why put multiple databases in an instance? A high-traffic application might use a multiple database strategy to avoid log file contention. SQL Server has a different approach. In a SQL Server production environment there is typically one database per SQL Enterprise Server instance. The SQL Server approach is to partition the monolithic database rather than creating multiple databases.
If you have license versions more recent than 2012, you can potentially use them for vCloud Air SQL because Software Assurance coverage confers downgrade rights. Calculate the number of licenses you need to cover the virtual CPUs hosting your SQL Server instance. This calculation depends on the licensing model associated with your licenses, and any service level agreements you have with your license vendor.
1.4 Preparing to Use vCloud Air SQL This section discusses how to sign up for the Early Access version of the service. You need a Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand account. This is a housekeeping requirement that implements the flexible payas-you-go model and supports the rapid creation of fully managed SQL Server instances. Your account must have the OnDemand Account Administrator role. Once you obtain an OnDemand account you can sign up for the vCloud Air SQL service.
1.6 Sign Up for the vCloud Air SQL Service Before signing up, verify that your OnDemand account has the Account Administrator role, and be sure to have your service ID, as described in Obtain an OnDemand Account. • • • • • Visit vCloud Air SQL at http://www.vmware.com/cloud-services/develop/vcloud-air-sql.html Click the yellow Sign Up button. Fill out the application and click Submit. You might get a response that the Early Access program You will receive an invitation email from NoReply@vca.vmware.com.
1.7.1 The Service Network As shown in Figure 1, a vDC is an isolated, addressable network space used to create an isolated network of virtual machines (VMs). Your organization can create many vDCs in vCloud Air. The Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand platform supplies compute, storage, and network resources to VMs in the vDC. vCloud Air SQL creates a single isolated network of SQL Server instances.
1.7.2.1 Grant Service Level Roles Follow these steps to grant service level administration roles to your vCloud Air SQL account. 1. Go to the vCloud Air SQL home page. 2. From the menu on the left, choose Access Control. 3. In the Access Control panel: o Click Edit to change your own account access. o Click More Users to grant access to others. Choose a user from the list, or in the search field, enter a string and click Find. 4. Check or uncheck the relevant boxes and click Save. 1.7.2.
2 Configuring a vDC to Work with vCloud Air SQL This section describes how to create and configure a vDC that can supply the OnDemand billing structure and also communicate with vCloud Air SQL. Because Air SQL is available from US Texas 1 14 data center, the vDC must exist there. 2.1 Create a Virtual Data Center As mentioned earlier, you need to obtain an OnDemand account because a vDC is required to connect vCloud Air SQL to the billing infrastructure.
2.2 Enable the Service Network If you want to expose a vDC to vCloud Air SQL you must enable its service network. This task only needs to be done once per VDC. If you are not sure whether the vDC you want to use has the service network enabled, see Verify that the Service Network is Enabled before continuing. 1. Select a vDC from the list on the left, and click the Gateways tab. 2. Hover over the gateway description until you see the Enable Service Network link at the bottom. Click Enable Service Network.
6. If the service network is enabled, you can click Cancel and proceed to Configure Networking. If it isn't, go to Enable Service Network. 2.4 Configure Networking Your organization's vDCs and vCloud Air SQL both use an Org-routed network, also called a Static Route. This network uses IP addresses in the 100.X range to communicate, usually 100.65.X as shown in Figure 2.
2. 3. 4. 5. d) In the Gateways tab, click Manage in vCloud Director. In vCloud Director, click Administration. Choose your data center from the Virtual Datacenters list. It is displayed in a table. Click the Edge Gateways tab. Right-click on the gateway row, and select Edge Gateway Services from the context menu. 6. In the Configure Services:gateway window, select the NAT tab. Near the top of the NAT Rules tab, click Add SNAT... 7.
d) Check the box for the SNAT rule, then click Finish at the bottom of the page. 8. Create a firewall rule that permits access to the org-routed network. a) Return to the Configure Services:gateway window and click the Firewall tab. b) Check Enable Firewall and click the Add button at the bottom of the form. c) In the Edit Firewall rule window, create a rule like this one, which permits a connection from the org-routed network to any IP address. A rule like this means the connection attempt is allowed.
3 Launching a vCloud Air SQL Instance This section describes the steps to create your first instance. 1. Log into the vCloud Air homepage: https://us-texas-1-14.vchs.vmware.com/api 2. Click the blue Launch and Instance button. 3. Select a service plan size. The plan size determines the resources VMware provisions to support your instance. o Virtual CPUs and compute memory corresponding to the number of CPUs o 150 GB of flash storage is allocated when the instance is provisioned.
4. Supply Basic Information for the instance identity and authorization. o o o o Instance Name. Spaces, >, and < are not allowed in the name. Service Group. Choose a service group. The service group you bill for this instance cannot be changed after the instance is created. You can use backup and restore to change the service ID. Backups are always restored to a new instance, so you can select a different service ID when specifying the service plan for the new instance. Listener Port.
6. Configure the recovery options. See Retaining and Recovering a vCloud Air SQL Instance for a full description of recovery options. Briefly, PITR creates transaction logs and creates partial backups, both of which are stored in the Recovery Storage. Snapshots also reside in Recovery Storage. Primary Storage and Recovery Storage are billed at different rates, as explained in Metering and Billing. 7. Configure the vDC Connections. This tab shows vDCs in the US Texas 1 14 data center.
9. View a summary of the instance information, and choose your license option. At this time BYOL is the only option. You must agree to accept the licensing terms and conditions. These include third-party terms, specifically for your SQL Server license obligations. If you want to make a change, click Previous, or click a tab. 10. Click Launch. You see a message that the instance is being created. Follow the link to view a list of instances, or see View an Instance. VMware, Inc.
4 Working with Instances This section discusses the management tasks for your instance. • • • View an Instance Delete an Instance Retain and Recover a vCloud Air SQL Instance See also: Grant Instance Level Roles 4.1 View an Instance On the vCloud Air SQL home page, choose Instances from the main menu. The instances you can view are determined by the roles assigned to your account at the server or instance level.
You cannot edit service plan features, such as: • • • The number of virtual CPUs or compute memory The Service ID The database engine version or the license source If you need to make such fundamental changes, take a snapshot of the instance and restore the snapshot to a new instance. 4.3 Delete an Instance To delete an instance you must have the role PolicyAdmin or InstanceOwner. 1. View Instances, and click a row in the table to choose your instance.
4.4.1 Restore to a Point in Time The automated backup option allows you to restore an instance to a point in time. When you create the instance and choose the PITR recovery method, you specify the length of the retention period, which is a rolling most-recent period up to a maximum of 35 days. Figure 3 is an example of this process. In the instance, a 7-day retention period has been specified. • • • • On the creation date a full backup is created, and transaction logging starts.
Figure 3: Sample Two Week Retention Period Follow these steps to restore to a point in time: 1. View Instances and click a row in the table to choose your instance. 2. On the Instance Detail page, select the PITR tab. 3. Choose the recovery time by moving the slider along the blue bar, or changing the time values. VMware, Inc.
4. Click Start Recovery to launch the new instance. You must provide the proper number of licenses to provision the new instance. See What are the licensing requirements? 4.4.2 Take a Snapshot 1. To take a snapshot, View Instances and click a row in the table of instances. This opens the configuration for the instance. 2. Click Take Snapshot. See View a Snapshot. 4.4.3 View a Snapshot After a scheduled backup is made, it appears in the Snapshots list. On the vCloud Air SQL home page, choose Snapshots.
3. The new instance must have the correct number of licenses. If you choose License Included as discussed in What are the Licensing Requirements? 4.4.5 Delete a Snapshot Go to the snapshot list and view a snapshot. On the Snapshot Detail page, you must be the InstanceOwner or SnapshotAdmin to see the Delete Snapshot button. Click Delete Snapshot. 4.5 Metering and Billing VMware bills you for just the resources you consume. vCloud Air SQL measures consumption in two ways: time and volume. 4.5.
Figure 4: Billing Line Items • Compute + License: The compute options and the license option are considered a single billable item, and they are billed on the time used, measured in hours. The hourly rate is determined by the plan size. For Early Access, where only BYOL is possible, the license cost is 0 and the line items for the compute bundle are Small or Medium.
1. On vCloud Air SQL home page, choose Instances. 2. Select and instance from the instance list. 3. Click the Usage tab. For further details, mouse over the points on the graph or the total estimated cost graphic. 4.5.4 Viewing a Monthly Statement When you are logged on, the service uses your name and email address for authentication. However, any related bill is based on the Service ID you supplied when you opened your account.
5 Terminology backup The backup process is associated with PITR. You choose the length of the retention period. PITR can restore an instance to any point-in-time within the retention period, which is a rolling most-recent period up to a maximum of 35 days. database Data stored in a relational database. This seems obvious, but we want to stress that in vCloud Air SQL, databases are contained within a vCloud Air SQL instance. vCloud Air SQL makes instances.
