VMware Aria Operations discovers objects in your environment for each adapter instance and lists them. From the complete list of all the objects in your environment, you can quickly access and configure any object. For example, you can check if a datastore is connected or providing data, or you can power on a virtual machine.

How the List Works

Objects appear in a data grid. To find a particular object, you can sort a column in the grid or search for a filter word. In addition to sorting and searching, assigning objects to object tags makes it easier to find objects and metrics.

Where You Find the List

From the left menu, click Environment and then, click Inventory. The system lists all the objects in your environment.

Inventory List Options

The center pane includes object tag options. The right pane includes toolbar options for all of the objects in your environment.

Table 1. Object Tag Options
Option Description
Collapse all Closes all the tag group selections.
Deselect All Tags remain selected until deselected. Use this option to deselect all tags.
Manage Tags Add a tag or tag value. See Manage Object Tags Workspace.
Manage Object Type Tags There might be many object type tags. Use this option to choose the object type tags to display. See Manage Object Type Tags Workspace.

Use the toolbar options to manage objects.

  • Filter options limit the list to objects matching the filter. Filter options include ID, Name, Description, Maintenance Schedule, Adapter Type, Object Type, and Identifiers.
  • Select the object to manage from the list. If an object tag is selected, only objects of the selected tag value are listed. Column headings help you to identify the object. See Object List Widget.
Table 2. Inventory Toolbar Options
Option Description
Action Perform an action on the selected object. Available actions depend on the object type. For example, Power on VM applies to the selected virtual machine. See Actions in VMware Aria Operations
Open in external application If an adapter includes the ability to link to another application for information about the object, click the button to access a link to the application. For example, Open Virtual Machine in a vSphere Client or Search for VM logs in VMware Aria Operations for Logs.
Start Collecting Turn on data collection for the selected object.
Stop Collecting Do not collect data for the selected object. When data collection stops, VMware Aria Operations retains metric data for the object in case data collection starts at a later time.
Perform Multi-Collecting If an object collects metrics through more than one adapter instance, select the adapter instance or instances for data collection. Does not apply to objects that do not use the adapter instance.
Edit object Edit the selected object. For example, add or change the maintenance schedule for a virtual machine. If multiple objects of the same type are selected, common identifiers for the object type are editable. For example, change the VM entity name of multiple datastores with a single edit. See Manage Objects Workspace.
Add object VMware Aria Operations discovers objects for most adapters. For adapters that do not support autodiscovery for all objects, the objects are manually added. See Manage Objects Workspace.
Discover Objects Perform an IP scan to discover objects associated with a particular adapter. See Discover Objects Workspace.
Delete object Remove the object from the list.
Start maintenance Take the object offline for maintenance. See Manage Maintenance Schedules for Your Object Workspace.
End maintenance Terminate the maintenance period and put the selected object back online.
Clear Selections Clear all object selections.
Select All Select all objects displayed.
Show Detail Display the Summary tab of the selected object.
Per page The number of objects to list per page.