Custom Object Groups Workspace to Create a New Group

You can create a new object group, define custom properties, assign a group type and objects to the group. When you create the group, you can assign a policy, or leave the policy selection blank to apply the default policy. VMware Aria Operations collects data from the objects in the group based on the settings in the policy that is associated with the group. The results appear in the dashboards and views.

Where You Assign Custom Group Type, Policy, and Membership

To assign the group type, policy, and membership, click Environment, click Custom Groups, and click Add to add a new group. In the New Group workspace, you can define the membership criteria, and select the objects to include or exclude.

To associate a policy with the custom object group, select the policy in the group creation wizard. To not associate a specific policy with the object group, leave the policy selection blank. The custom object group will be associated with the default policy. If the default policy changes, this object group will be associated with the new default policy.

Table 1. New Group Workspace

Option	Description
Name	Meaningful name of the object group.
Group Type	Categorization for the object group. New custom groups appear in a dedicated folder in the Custom Groups navigation pane on the left.
Policy	Assigns a policy to one or more groups of objects to have VMware Aria Operations analyze the objects according to the settings in your policy, trigger alerts when the defined thresholds are violated, and display the results in dashboards, views, and reports. You can assign a policy to the group when you create the group, or you can assign it later from the edit custom group wizard or from the policies area.
Keep group membership up to date	For dynamic object groups, VMware Aria Operations can discover objects that match the criteria for the group membership according to the rules that you define, and update the group members based on the search results.
Define Membership Criteria pane	Defines the criteria for a dynamic object group and has VMware Aria Operations keep the object membership of the group current. Object Type drop-down menu. Selects the type of objects to add to the group, such as virtual machines. Metrics, Relationship, and Properties criteria drop-down menu. Defines the criteria for VMware Aria Operations to apply to collect data from the selected objects. Metrics. An instance of a data type, or attribute, that varies based on the object type. A metric is used as measurement criteria to collect data from objects. For example, you can select system attributes as a metric, where an attribute is a type of data that VMware Aria Operations collects from objects. Relationship. Indicates how the object is related to other objects. For example, you can require a virtual machine object to be a child object that contains a certain word in the vSphere Hosts and Clusters navigation tree. Properties. Identifies a configuration parameter for the object. For example, you can require a virtual machine to have a memory limit that is greater than 100KB. Object Name. Specifies the name of the object. For example, you can create custom group which contains object with specific names. Tag. Specifies a tag for the object. For example, you can create membership criteria based on specific tags. You can use the filtering option to define the membership criteria for a group. The available options are: is - Displays the result of the typed text. Example - "!", displays all results equal to the symbol "!" is not - Displays the result of the typed text. Example - "1_node", displays all results not equal to "1_node" contains -Displays the result of the typed text. Example - "An", displays all results that contain "An" does not contain - Displays the result of the typed text. Example - "An", displays all results that does not contain "An" starts with - Displays the result of the typed text. Example - "!!", displays all results that starts with "!!" ends with - Displays the result of the typed text. Example - "N", displays all results that ends with "N" does not start with - Displays the result of the typed text. Example - "N", displays all results that does not start with "N" does not end with - Displays the result of the typed text. Example - "S", displays all results that does not end with "S" matches regular expression - Displays the result if it matches the regular expression. Example .*8\.\d* does not match regular expression Displays the result if it does not match the regular expression. Example .*8\.\d* Add. Includes another metric, relationship, or property for the object type. Remove. Deletes the selected object type from the membership criteria, or delete the selected metric, relationship, or property type from the criteria for the object type. Add another criteria set. Adds another object type to add to the group. For example, you might want to create a single object group to track vCenter Server instances and Host Systems. Preview button. After you define the membership criteria, previews the list of objects in the group to verify that the criteria you defined is applicable to the group of objects. If the criteria that you defined is valid, the preview displays applicable objects. If the criteria is not valid, the preview does not display any objects.
Objects To Always Include pane	Determine which objects to include in the group every time VMware Aria Operations collects data from the objects, regardless of the membership criteria. The objects that you include override the criteria that you define for membership. In previous versions of VMware Aria Operations , these objects were called a allowlist. Filtered objects pane. Displays the list of available object groups and the objects in each group. To always include objects in the group, select the check box for a group or select individual objects in a group, and click the Add button. Add button. Adds the selected objects to the right pane for permanent inclusion in the object group. Selected objects only. Adds only the selected objects to the object group permanently. Selected objects and all descendants. Adds the selected object and the descendants of the selected objects to the object group permanently. Selected objects and direct children. Adds the selected object and the direct children of the selected objects to the object group permanently. Objects to always include (n) pane. Lists the objects that you add to the include list. You must select the check box in the right pane to confirm inclusion of the objects. The number of objects selected for inclusion is reflected by the (n) variable in the title of the pane. Remove button. Removes the objects selected in the right pane from the list of objects to always include. Selected objects only. Removes only the selected objects from the list of objects to always include. Selected objects and direct children. Removes the selected objects and the children of the selected objects from the list of objects to always include. Selected objects and all descendants. Removes the selected objects and the descendants of the selected objects from the list of objects to always include.
Objects To Always Exclude pane	Determine which objects to exclude from the group every time VMware Aria Operations collects data from the objects, regardless of the membership criteria. The objects that you include override the criteria that you define for membership. In previous versions of VMware Aria Operations , these objects were called a denylist. Filtered objects pane. Displays the list of available object groups and the objects in each group. To always exclude objects from the group, select the check box for a group or select individual objects in a group, and click the Add button. Add button. Adds the selected objects to the right pane for permanent exclusion from the object group. Selected objects only. Adds only the selected objects to be permanently excluded from the object group. Selected objects and all descendants. Adds the selected objects and the descendants of the selected objects for permanent exclusion from the object group. Selected objects and direct children. Adds the selected object and the direct children of the selected objects to the object group permanently. Objects to always exclude (n) pane. Lists the objects that you add to the exclude list. You must select the check box in the right pane to confirm exclusion of the objects. The number of objects selected for exclusion is reflected by the (n) variable in the title of the pane. Remove button. Removes the objects selected in the right pane from the list of objects to always exclude. Selected objects only. Removes only the selected objects from the list of objects to always exclude. Selected objects and direct children. Removes the selected objects and the children of the selected objects from the list of objects to always exclude. Selected objects and all descendants. Removes the selected object and the descendants of the selected objects from the list of objects to always exclude.
Assign Custom Properties	In VMware Aria Operations , you can define custom properties to collect and store operational data related to different objects. The custom property can be either a string or a numeric. You can assign the newly defined custom properties to new groups or existing groups. Property Name. Select or specify a name for the custom property. Type. Select the type of custom property from the drop-down menu. The custom property can either be a string or a numeric. Value. Specify a custom property value, which should be assigned to this custom property when an object is added to the group. Reset Value. Specify a custom property value, which should be assigned to this custom property when an object leaves the group. Reset. Resets the custom property to a non-zero value. Remove. Removes the custom property from the group. Add Another Custom Property. Adds another custom property to the group.