Need to Manage Thousands of Backing Services? Get to Know Pivotal Service Instance Manager.

October 17, 2019 Jack Newberry

It can be hard to keep track of the thousands of databases, caches, and other service instances across all your Pivotal Platform foundations.

Pivotal Service Instance Manager, now in beta, aims to make this task easier.

With this release of Service Instance Manager, we focused on two use cases: finding a specific instance (or set of instances), and cleaning up unused instances. Here’s a screenshot.

Pivotal Service Instance Manager can filter different types of service instances on a specific foundation.

Here’s how it works.

A Closer Look at Pivotal Service Instance Manager

As the name suggests, Pivotal Service Instance Manager gives you a view into all your service instances. The tool works with all supported Pivotal Application Service versions; it is immediately compatible with your deployment.

Here’s what you can expect from the product today:

  • Multi-foundation. Manage service instances across all your foundations.

  • Integrated with Pivotal Platform Permissions. Service Instance Manager uses UAA for permissions to account for your configured role-based access controls. As such, users see only the service instances they have permission to see. For added convenience, it works with your single sign-on authentication for every foundation.

  • Search. Filter service instances by name, ID, org, space, foundation, and bound apps. 

  • Identify unused instances. Save on infrastructure costs by finding and deleting unused service instances. Detect candidates for cleanup by searching for service instances that lack app bindings or service keys.

  • Assess service adoption. Filter by service type to assist with showback and chargeback workflows. Perform finer grained filters to discover team-level service instance counts.

Now, let’s step through the two aforementioned scenarios finding a specific instance, and cleaning up unused instances.

Finding a Specific Service Instance, or Set of Service Instances

Developers that push code to Pivotal Platform have self-service access to backing services. While the developer can provision and attach instances, the platform team still gets called when a service instance misbehaves.

Now, how to find the problematic instance?

Previously, this workflow could seem like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Now, Pivotal Service Instance Manager helps you find it faster. Just search for it! Check out the animated GIF below!

After locating the troublesome service instance, the platform operator can quickly choose the tool that will allow them to troubleshoot further. Your chosen tool may depend on the type of service, its foundation, and the status of said instance. In any case, these useful details are immediately visible in Service Instance Manager!

Cleaning Up Unused Service Instances

Pivotal Platform makes it easy to create service instances. Service Instance Manager makes it easy to clean them up. You can:

  • Filter service instances by type and see quick assessment of resource consumption. 

  • Further refine your search and filtering for services that are not connected to any apps. This helps you locate service instances that might be unused. 

Once again, the animated GIF tells the story:

What’s more, the location of each service instance is displayed. This will help you track down the “owner” of the service instance, so you can double-check with the right person before deleting the unwanted service instances. We’re keen to hear your feedback on this scenario, so we can further improve your workflow.

Try Service Instance Manager Today!

Ready to add Service Instance Manager to your deployment? 

  • Download the bits from Pivotal Network. (You’ll need to login.)
  • Then review our docs. Work with your balanced account from there.

Got feedback for the product team? We’d love to hear from you! Reach out us at fleet-management@pivotal.io.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT

This blog contains statements relating to Pivotal’s expectations, projections, beliefs, and prospects which are "forward-looking statements” and by their nature are uncertain. Words such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "plans," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of many factors. All information set forth in this blog is current as of the date of this blog. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties, risks, assumptions, and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks disclosed previously and from time to time by us. Additional information we disclose could cause actual results to vary from expectations. Pivotal disclaims any obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time except as required by law.

This blog also contains statements which are intended to outline the general direction of certain of Pivotal's offerings. It is intended for information purposes only and may not be incorporated into any contract.  Any information regarding the pre-release of Pivotal offerings, future updates or other planned modifications is subject to ongoing evaluation by Pivotal and is subject to change. All software releases are on an “if and when available” basis and are subject to change. This information is provided without warranty or any kind, express or implied, and is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions regarding Pivotal's offerings. Any purchasing decisions should only be based on features currently available.  The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Pivotal's offerings in this blog remain at the sole discretion of Pivotal. Pivotal has no obligation to update forward-looking information in this blog.

About the Author

Jack Newberry

Jack works as a Software Engineer at Pivotal London. He’s currently in the Service Instance Management team, having previously spent time developing Redis for Pivotal Platform and the On Demand Service Broker. An immigrant from New Zealand, he enjoys a nice flat white and a walk in the mountains.

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