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Applying the latest VMware Aria Patches
This past week we dropped the latest versions of the VMware Aria Suite: VMware Aria Operations 8.18.7 VMware Aria Operations for Logs 8.18.7 VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.18.0 Patch 8 VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator 8.18.1 U6 (Patch 6) VMware Aria Automation 8.18.1 U5 (Patch 5) I'm running the following in my lab: VMware Aria Operations 8.18.6 VMware Aria Operations for Logs 8.18.6 VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.18.0 Patch 7 VMware Aria Automation 8.18.1 U4 (Patch 4) Let's
Brock Peterson
Jun 1
Upgrade Aria Operations 8.18.3 to VCF Operations 9.0 via Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager
In our previous blog we discussed upgrading Aria Operations 8.18.3 to VCF Operations 9.0 via the Admin UI. Here we will show how to do it via the Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager. Let's go! First, Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager will need to be at 8.18.1 Patch2, which you can get here. Once downloaded, SCP it to the ASLCM VM and put it in /data. After that, it'll be available for application from the ASLCM UI. Go to Lifecycle Operations - Settings - Binary Mapping. - Patch Bina
Brock Peterson
Jun 21, 2025
Upgrade Aria Operations 8.18.3 to VCF Operations 9.0
VCF 9 dropped earlier this week, let's see what upgades looks like! I'm going to start minimal and work my way into a fresh deploy of VCF 9. Let's start with an in-place upgrade of Aria Operations 8.18.3 to VCF Operations 9. Great blog here from the team highlighting some of the goodness in VCF Operations 9! We'll start by going to the Broadcom Support Portal to download the VCF Operations 9 binaries. Be sure to click and read the Terms and Conditions link and the Complia
Brock Peterson
Jun 21, 2025
Aria Operations Super Metric attaching Datastore Metrics to Clusters
I was working on an Aria Operations Dashboard focused on Cluster capacity, it looked like this. In the middle widget (the list view), I have several different metrics for the Clusters: CPU, Memory, Disk, etc. But I wanted to include Datastore Disk Space metrics here as well, related to a specific Datastore. My first thought, use the related objects capability introduced in 8.18. Unfortunately, Cluster to datastore isn't a 1-1 mapping, and there is no way to filter just the
Brock Peterson
Jun 15, 2025
How to Make Diagnostics Visible in Aria Operations for ReadOnly Users
I was logging into Aria Operations (8.18.3 (24746341)) with my personal account and seeing this. You'll notice two blades missing on the left hand side: Diagnotics and Subscriptions, why? Well, let's explore permissions. Log back in as admin (Local Users) and go to Administration - Control Panel - Access Control. Let's explore the details of my account. You'll notice my personal account has Role ReadOnly and Scope All Objects. What does ReadOnly get us? Back on the main A
Brock Peterson
Jun 14, 2025
Adjusting the Report Email Header in Aria Operations
In VCF Operations you have the ability to schedule Reports and email them. They come in looking like this, with a header in bold saying "The attached report was generated and emailed by VMware Aria Operations". What if you want to change this? Can do, find the file called report-email-template.html on your Operations Cluster Primary Node, which exists in /usr/lib/vmware-vcops/controller/plugins/vcops-view-server-1.0-SNAPSHOT/conf/templates. It'll look like this. <html> <bod
Brock Peterson
Jun 5, 2025
Aria Operations Custom Group Custom Properties
I had a Dashboard (and View) with a list of ESXi Hosts, the parent Cluster they were in, but also wanted the name of the Custom Group those parent Clusters were in, but there was no easy way to do this. The Custom Group name wasn't available as an ancestor/descendant object type property in the View. I couldn't create a Super Metric attaching the Custom Group name to the Cluster, as Super Metrics don't support strings. I was asking around internally and a colleague told me
Brock Peterson
Jun 3, 2025
ESXi Host CPU Contention in Aria Operations
ESXi Hosts have dozen of metrics in Aria Operations, one of them is CPU Contention (%). As the hover indicates, this represents the Percent of time descendant virtual machines are unable to run because they are contending for access to the physical CPU(s). Or rather, the Percent of time the ESXi Host can't satisfy VMs demand for CPU. These are generally recognized levels of ESXi Host CPU Contention (%): 0–2%: Normal, no contention 2–5%: Low contention, monitor if sustained
Brock Peterson
May 25, 2025
Aria Operations 8.18 HF6 via Admin UI
Aria Operations 8.18 HF6 dropped yesterday, fixing a few bugs and addressing several CVEs, it was announced here. It can be applied to any 8.18.x environment and once applied will take you to 8.18.3 (24746341). Let's go get it, you can download it here. There is a corresponding Aria Pre-Upgrade Assessment Tool (APUAT) you can run before applying HF6 as well, to confirm your environment is ready. Let's get that as well and run it. Once downloaded, log into the Admin UI at..
Brock Peterson
May 23, 2025
Aria Operations 8.18 HF6 Update via Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager
Aria Operations 8.18 HF6 dropped this morning, it can be applied to any 8.18.x environments. Let's download it and apply it vis Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager (ASLCM). Here's how. I'm running Aria Operations 8.18.3, so am downloading this patch. Download it here. Once downloaded, you'll need to upload it to /data on your ASLCM VM, then make it available for application. Go to Lifecycle Operations - Settings - Binary Mapping - Patch Binaries, discover it in /data and ADD. I'
Brock Peterson
May 22, 2025
vSphere Tags on Clusters in Aria Operations
vSphere VMs have this concept of "Notes" in vCenter, which are pulled into Aria Operations quite nicely. They look like this. This works great for VMs, but what about Clusters? Unfortunately, there is no concept of Notes in vCenter for Clusters, so I tried with vSphere Tags and got close. It's not perfect, but close. I wanted to assign some sort of purpose/function to a Cluster in vCenter, so we could view it in Operations, here's what I did. Log into vCenter, go to the ha
Brock Peterson
May 21, 2025
Fresh Deploy of Aria Operations 8.18.3
It's been a while since I freshly deployed Aria Operations, so let's see what it looks like with Operations 8.18.3. For the record, I downloaded it here. Once downloaded, I deployed directly from vCenter, powered on the VM and here we go. Click NEW INSTALLATION. Set the admin password. Use the default self-signed certificate or provide your own. I'll take the default and adjust later if necessary. Give it an NTP server. I won't be using HA or CA, so will take the default he
Brock Peterson
May 8, 2025
Aria Operations Inventory
Aria Operations Inventory got an update in 8.18, here's what it looks like now, this screenshot is taken from 8.18.3 (24521408). Up top you'll see a view containing VCF Accounts, vCenters, Datacenters, Clusters, Hosts, VMs, and Datastores. These numbers are being captured a couple different wants, here's how: VCF Accounts (broken down into VCF Accounts and VCF Domains) VCF Accounts: captured by running a GET /api/resources against the "VCFAdapterInstance" resourceKind. The
Brock Peterson
May 5, 2025
Cluster Availability % in Aria Operations
Looking to determine vSphere Cluster availability in Aria Operations? We introduced a metric called Cluster Availability (%) back in Operations 8.16, here's how it works. Cluster Availability (%) is a computed metric, the formula can be found in /usr/lib/vmware-vcops/user/plugins/inbound/vmwarevi_adapter3/conf/describe.xml. Looking there you'll find the following: <ComputedMetric expression="min([100,${this, metric=summary|number_running_hosts}/(${this, metric=summary|total_
Brock Peterson
May 2, 2025
Creating Dell EMC PowerEdge Adapter Instances Programmatically in Aria Operations
I published a blog recently focused on creating HPE ProLiant Adapter Instances in Aria Operations. I wanted another one for Dell EMC PowerEdge Adapter Instances, but it wasn't quite as easy as just adjusting a few lines of code. Here's what I did. I created one manually to explore the JSON return on a GET /api/adapters, it looked like this. The JSON Response Body looks like this. { "adapterInstancesInfoDto": [ { "resourceKey": { "name": "Dell EMC PowerEdge Adapter Instance
Brock Peterson
May 1, 2025
Updated Script for Automated Adapter Instance Creation in Aria Operations
Last month I published a blog including a script that helped users create HPE Proliant Adapter instances. I've updated that script to allow users to configure the Collector Group each adapter instance uses and to start the adapter instances if they'd like, you can get it here. The script uses the Operations API to make all the adjustments necessary, so powerful, enjoy!
Brock Peterson
Apr 22, 2025
Aria Operations Super Metrics on Properties
I wanted to attach the vSphere Distributed Port Group (DPG) vLAN ID property to the VM/s using it, so I tried creating a Super Metric for it. This is the standard way of attaching metrics/properties (not strings) from one object type to another. My Super Metric looks like this. I've defined the Super Metric on the VM object type with this formula: max({vSphere Distributed Port Group: Configuration|Policies|Security|VLAN ID, depth=1}) I've chosen the vDGP property I want,
Brock Peterson
Apr 13, 2025
Logging into Aria Operations
Have you ever noticed the Operations authentication dropdown shows your vCenter integrations? You'll notice Local Users, a Microsoft Active Directory Domain, and vCenters in my lab. But what does authenticating via these vCenter options mean? It means that you'll only be able to see objects from those particular vCenters once in, which can be confusing, so I'd like to disable them. Go to Administration - Global Settings - User Access and adjust these two settings. The top o
Brock Peterson
Apr 6, 2025
Aria Operations 8.18 HF5
Aria Operations 8.18 HF5 just dropped this morning, fixing a few bugs and addressing several VMSAs/CVEs, go get it here! You can apply it locally via the admin UI or via the Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager. In this blog, I'll apply it locally. I'm applying this to an 8.18.3 environment, the About page looks like this. Let's go to the admin UI and take the Operations Cluster offline. Click TAKE CLUSTER OFFLINE. Give it a Reason and click OK. Then go to Software Upate Select IN
Brock Peterson
Apr 1, 2025
Automated Adapter Instance Creation in Aria Operations
Years ago we had a tool that helped to automate the creation of Adapter Instances in Aria Operations, allowing you to easily create...
Brock Peterson
Mar 25, 2025
Aria Operations Custom Benchmarks
We've discussed Compliance capabilities in Aria Operations before: DISA, FISMA, HIPAA, PCI, CIS, and ISO. But what if I want to customize a Benchmark, say CIS, and change a few things? Answer: Clone the Alerts/Symptom definitions included in the CIS Benchmark, change what you want, then import them into your new Benchmark, here's how. I've activated and enabled the CIS Compliance Pack as shown here. First you select ACTIVATE FROM REPOSITORY, then once activated you select
Brock Peterson
Mar 24, 2025
Yellow Metrics and Properties in Aria Operations
We've all been in Aria Operations exploring metrics and properties and noticed some of them are yellow, like this VM. What does this mean? It means one of three things: There in an Active Alert against that metric/property There is an Active Symptom against that metric/property There is an Active Events against that metric/property. Let's have a look at this particular VM and one of the metrics that is highlighted in yellow. Going to the Alerts tab, you'll notice an Active A
Brock Peterson
Mar 23, 2025
vCenter TLS, SSL, STS, and Root Certificates in Aria Operations
We've discussed Certificate visibility in Aria Operations previously, but nothing in depth around vCenter Certificates, let's explore. Looking at a vCenter (captured by vCenter Adapter) you'll see there are two Certificate related properties. One gives the number of days to expiration (in Days) the other gives the Certificate Expiration Date (in ms since the Epoch). Converting this Certificate Expiration Date (ms) to a date gives May 5, 2026. And as you can see, this matche
Brock Peterson
Mar 21, 2025
vSphere Cluster Overcommit Ratios in Aria Operations
People like to run their vSphere Cluster Overcommit ratios at different levels, based on workload types, capacity available, and more. Generally, I see Cluster CPU Overcommit ratios around 4:1, which means there are 4-times as many vCPU allocated to VMs in the Cluster as there are CPU Cores on the ESXi Hosts that comprise the Cluster. This is a bit different for Cluster Memory Overcommit ratios, which tend to be closer to 2:1, depending on workload types, capacity, and more
Brock Peterson
Mar 16, 2025
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