Amazon Relational Database Service on VMware Debuts Amazon Web Services. Amazon Web Services (AWS), announced the general availability on VMware of Amazon Relational Database Service. This service was first announced in September 2018. Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), a managed relational service, is available for many popular databases engines. AWS claims it makes it easy to set up, operate and scale a relational database in cloud with just a few clicks. AWS announced the preview in September last year. It said that Amazon RDS on VMware automates the management of a database regardless of where it is located, allowing customers to concentrate on developing and tuning their apps. It’s now available for production. A blog post on October 16 announced that it is now supported for Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL and MySQL.

  • Compute scaling
  • Monitoring the health of database instances
  • Failover
  • Database and OS patching
  • In minutes, you can create new databases on-premises
  • The ability to create backups and restore to a specific point in time
  • Automated management on-premises databases without the need to provision or manage the engine

[Click on the image to see a larger view.] Amazon RDS for VMware (source: Amazon Web Services) Amazon RDS for VMware says: “Amazon RDS offers cost-efficient and resizable capacities while automating time-consuming administration tasks such as infrastructure provisioning and database setup, patching and backups, allowing you to concentrate on your applications.” RDS on VMware offers many of the same benefits for your on-premises deployments. It makes it easy to create, manage, and scale databases in VMware private data centers. The blog post outlines the prerequisites:

  • Compatibility – RDS works on VMware clusters running version 6.5 or higher
  • Connectivity – Your vSphere cluster should have outbound connectivity to Internet and be able make HTTPS connections with public AWS endpoints.
  • Permissions – To set up RDS on VMware, you will need administrative privileges on the cluster. For RDS on VMware to work, you will need to create or acquire a second set credential.
  • Hardware – You must list the hardware you use to host RDS with VMware in the relevant VMware Hardware Compatibility guide.
  • Resources – Each cluster should have at least 24 vCPUs and 24 GiB memory. There must also be 180 GB storage to store the RDS on VMware on-premises management components. You may also need additional resources to support any on-premises databases you launch.

RDS on VMware is now available in the US East Region. A FAQ provides more information.