VMware Tanzu Application Service Overview | Generated by AI
Introduction to VMware Tanzu Application Service for VMs (TAS for VMs)
VMware Tanzu Application Service for VMs (TAS for VMs) is a commercial platform-as-a-service (PaaS) built on the open-source Cloud Foundry project. It’s designed to simplify the deployment, scaling, and management of cloud-native applications, allowing developers to focus on writing code rather than handling infrastructure. TAS for VMs enables rapid app deployment across various environments, including on-premises (like vSphere) or public clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP, OpenStack), and supports both self-managed setups and certified commercial providers.
Key Features
- Open-Source Foundation: Leverages Cloud Foundry’s extensibility to avoid vendor lock-in, supporting multiple languages, frameworks, and services.
- Automated Deployment: Push apps using familiar tools (e.g., CLI) without code changes; apps are packaged into “droplets” (pre-compiled bundles) for quick staging and running.
- Scalability and Resilience: Uses Diego for intelligent load distribution across VMs, automatic scaling, and fault tolerance to handle traffic surges or failures.
- User Management: Organizes teams into “organizations” and “spaces” with role-based access (e.g., admin, developer) via UAA (User Account and Authentication) servers.
- Service Integration: Easily bind apps to services like databases or APIs through Service Brokers, without modifying application code.
- Monitoring and Logging: Aggregates logs and metrics via Loggregator into a “Firehose” stream for real-time analysis, alerting, and integration with tools.
- Small Footprint Option: A lightweight version that runs on just 4 VMs (vs. 13+ for standard), ideal for smaller teams or testing, though with some scale limitations.
- Flexible Infrastructure: Deployed via BOSH (an automation tool) and managed with Tanzu Operations Manager for streamlined configuration.
Benefits
TAS for VMs accelerates time-to-market by enabling apps to go live in minutes, with automatic scaling and global accessibility. It reduces infrastructure overhead, enhances security through compartmentalized workspaces, and promotes portability—apps run consistently across environments. By abstracting away VM management, it cuts costs and complexity, while the Cloud Foundry community ensures ongoing innovation and support.
How It Works
At its core, TAS for VMs acts as a multi-tenant PaaS:
- Deployment: Use Tanzu Operations Manager to configure and deploy the platform on BOSH-managed VMs.
- App Lifecycle: Developers push code via CLI; the Cloud Controller stages it with buildpacks (for language-specific setup) into droplets, then Diego auctions and runs instances across host VMs.
- Routing and Access: Gorouter handles incoming traffic, load-balanced externally; UAA authenticates users.
- Operations: Internal components communicate via NATS messaging and BOSH DNS; resources like blobs and configs are stored in GitHub, blobstores, or MySQL.
TAS for VMs extends open-source Cloud Foundry with VMware’s enterprise-grade features, support, and certifications, making it a robust choice for production workloads.
For more details, check the official documentation: TAS for VMs Overview