2.6

Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 15
Chapter 2 Planning an ACE Management Server Deployment
Database Options
ACEManagementServeroffersthefollowingdatabaseoptions:
EmbeddedSQLitedatabaseThedefaultmodeofACEManagementServerworkswithanembedded
SQLite3databaseengine.TheSQLitedatabaseengineisinitializedduringserverinstallationandrequires
nospecialconfiguration.The embeddeddatabasesupportsuptoseveralgigabytesofdata.
TheSQLitedatabaseisfilebasedandisnot
designedtobe effectivelysharedacrossmultipleprocesses.If
youusethirdpartytoolstoaccessthedatabaseforareadoperation,therefore,youcannotdependon
transactionalisolationofthependingwriteoperationsoftheACEManagementServer.
Theembeddeddatabaseisadequatefortestingpurposes,butVMwarerecommendsthat
youusean
externaldatabaseinproductionenvironments.
SupportedexternaldatabaseInproductionenvironments,useasupportedexternaldatabaseasa
backingstoreforACEManagementServer,throughODBCconnectivity.Supportedexternaldatabase
enginesarethefollowing:
ForWindowsbasedACEManagementServer,useMicrosoftSQLServer(SQLServer2000orSQL
Server2005)orOracleDatabase10ginstalledonthesamesystemoradifferentWindowssystem
ForLinuxbasedACEManagementServer,usePostgreSQL7.4orhigherinstalledonthesame
systemoradifferentLinuxsystem
UsinganexternaldatabasewithACEManagementServeroffersthefollowingbenefits:
OnlinebackupsothatyoudonothavetoshutdownACEManagementServertobackupthe
database.
Enhancedsecuritymodel.Youcanfinetunepermissionstoaccesssensitivedata.TheSQLite
databaseengineprovidesfilesystembasedsecurity.
Performancefinetuning.
Abilitytouseexternaldatabasemanagementandreportingtools.
AbilitytouseloadbalancerswithmultipleACEManagementServerinstances.Youmustusean
externalRDBMSasthebackingstore,becausetheSQLitedatabaseisnotdesignedtobeeffectively
sharedacrossmultipleprocesses.
Active Directory Authentication Options
ActiveDirectoryintegrationprovidesthefollowingbenefits:
PermitsjoininganoperatingsystemthatisrunninganACEinstancetothedomainremotely.
Providessearchfunctionssoyoucanquicklyfindaparticularindividualorgroup.
EnablesyoutouseActiveDirectoryUsersandGroupstoconfigurerolebasedaccesstothefeaturesof
ACEManagementServer.
Performing Capacity Planning
ACEManagementServerenablesyoutomanageACEinstancesandpoliciesinrealtime.Thenumberof
clientsthatasingleACEManagementServercanservedependsonseveralkeyfactors:
Databasethroughputandscalability
LDAPthroughput(ifyouareusingActiveDirectory)
Networkbandwidthavailableforincomingclientrequests
N
OTEIfACEManagementServerisdeployedintheDMZ,useanexternaldatabaselocatedinsideyour
corporatenetworkbehindafirewall.