Automation Config is an automated configuration management platform that provisions, configures, deploys, manages, and monitors nodes to ensure that the nodes in your system are always operating in a consistent, desired state. Automation Config uses automation to ensure that your team can manage your environment at any scale: from 100 nodes to 100,000.

Note: Going forward, Automation Config is no longer included in the Aria Automation suite of products. The new name of this product is VMware Tanzu Salt and this product is available as part of the VMware Tanzu Platform suite of products. See Using and Managing Tanzu Salt for more information.

You can use Automation Config to query and execute commands on individual VMs, or groups of VMs, at high scale and speed.

With Automation Config, you can provision, configure, and deploy software to your virtual machines at any scale using event-driven automation. You can also use Automation Config to define and enforce optimal, compliant software states across your entire environment.

Automation Config is powered by Salt, an open-source configuration management and automation system. Automation Config extends Salt’s automated, event-driven configuration management platform by providing additional features, such as:

  • Role-based access controls - Ensures that network engineers only have access to the resources and jobs that are necessary to fulfill their specific work responsibilities.
  • User-friendly interface - In addition to the ability to execute commands from the command line, Automation Config also provides a graphical user interface for ease of use.
  • Security automation - Optional add-ons bring you automated vulnerability remediation and continuous compliance for hybrid IT systems.

Some tasks might not be available in the user interface and will only be possible through the API endpoints for RaaS.

To log in to Automation Config, go to the Automation Config URL provided by your administrator, enter your user name and password, and click Log In.

Note: Automation Config supports both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox web browsers.
You can update various settings in the User Preferences workspace.
Table 1. User Preferences
Option Description
Session timeout From this menu, select the length of time (in minutes) you must be inactive before being logged out automatically.
Theme Choose from the dark or light theme.
Set Limit

When enabled, this setting enforces a limit on the number of minions displayed in various datagrids, tables, and charts in the Reports workspace and in job returns. This setting only affects visual displays in the Automation Config user interface and does not impact any actual functionality. When any element is affected by the minion limit, you’ll see an alert message.

This setting is enabled by default to improve the performance of the user interface. Be aware that disabling this setting could cause performance issues.
Minion Limit Sets the number of minions that are limited when Set Limit is enabled.