The global settings determine how VMware Aria Operations retains data, keeps connection sessions open, and other settings. These are system settings that affect all users. Some of these settings are not editable. The global settings are grouped into four types. .

Settings in the Data Retention Category

Table 1. Global Setting Default Values and Descriptions
Setting Default Value Description
Action History

14 days

Number of days to retain the recent task data for actions.

The data is purged from the system after the specified number of days.

Deleted Objects

168 hours

This setting determines the number of hours for which objects in the inventory must be retained when:
  • the objects are deleted from an adapter data source or server before deleting them from VMware Aria Operations
  • A cloud account is deleted from VMware Aria Operations but the checkbox to delete related objects is not selected in the Delete All Accounts dialog box.

An object deleted from an adapter data source is identified by VMware Aria Operations as not existing and VMware Aria Operations can no longer collect data about the object. Whether VMware Aria Operations identifies deleted objects as not existing depends on the adapter. This feature is not implemented in some adapters.

For example, if the retention time is 360 hours and a virtual machine is deleted from a vCenter Server instance, the virtual machine remains as an object in VMware Aria Operations for 15 days before it is deleted.

This setting applies to objects deleted from the data source or server, not to any objects you delete from VMware Aria Operations on the Inventory page.

You can define the number of hours per object type to retain objects that no longer exist and check for object type overrides. To add individual object types and set up their values, click the Object Deletion Scheduling icon. You can also edit or delete these object types.

Deletion Scheduling Interval 24 hours

Determines the frequency to schedule deletion of resources. This setting works with the Deleted Objects setting to remove objects that no longer exist in the environment. VMware Aria Operations transparently marks objects for removal that have not existed for the length of time specified under Deleted Objects. VMware Aria Operations then removes the marked objects at the frequency specified under Deletion Scheduling Interval.

Object History

90 days

Number of days to retain the history of the object configuration, relationship, and property data.

Note:

The retention decision for each property value is based on the end date of that value instead of the start date. So any property value with an end date within the last 90 days interval (default setting) is retained. For example, if property value A was first published 1 year ago (which is long before the object history retention interval of 90 days) and property value B was published 3 days ago, and if no more points for that property exists, then the end date for the value A will be 3 days ago and for value B now. So both end dates will be within the recent 90 day limit and both values will be retained.

The configuration data is the collected data from the monitored objects on which the metrics are based. The collected data includes changes to the configuration of the object.

The data is purged from the system after the specified number of days.

Generated Reports Retention

deactivated

Number of days to retain generated reports. If deactivated, all the generated reports will be retained.

The minimum number of days you can set is one and the maximum number of days you can set is 3600.

Symptoms/Alerts

45 days

Number of days to retain canceled alerts and symptoms.

The alerts and symptoms are either canceled by the system or by a user.

Time Series Data Retention

6 months

Number of months that you want to retain the collected and calculated metric data for the monitored objects. This setting is set to 6 months by default for 5 minutes interval data retention.

Additional Time Series Retention

36 months

The number of months that the roll-up data extends beyond the regular period. The roll-up data is available starting from the end of the regular period and until the end of the roll-up data retention period. If you specify 0 as the value, then this will effectively deactivate the Additional Time Series Data Retention time and only data specified in Time Series Retention is stored. This setting ensures that after 6 months of normal retention for 5 minutes, the seventh month data is rolled up into a one hour roll up. You can set up this option up to 120 months for data roll ups.

Deleted Users 100 days

You can specify the number of days to keep custom content created by a user who has been removed from VMware Aria Operations or by the automatic synchronization of LDAP. For example, the custom dashboards created by a user.

External Event Based Active Symptoms deactivated

The number of days to retain the external event-based active symptoms.

Maintain Relationship History deactivated

You can maintain a history of all the relationships of all the monitored objects in VMware Aria Operations

.

Settings in the Cost/Price Category

Table 2. Global Setting Default Values and Descriptions
Setting Default Value Description
Cost Calculation activated The host time at which cost calculations are run.
Currency You can specify the currency unit that is used for all the cost calculations. You can select the type of currency from the list of currency types by clicking Choose Currency. From the Set Currency, select the required currency and confirm your action by clicking the check box, and set the currency.
Cluster Utilization Ceiling Factor 5 Ceiling for Expected Utilization when running on Actual Utilization.
Tag Based Costing Metrics deactivated When activated, VMware Aria Operations additional cost metrics per tag.
Tag Based Pricing Metrics deactivated When activated, VMware Aria Operations additional pricing metrics per tag.

Settings in the User Access Category

Table 3. Global Setting Default Values and Descriptions
Setting Entry Description
Allow vCenter users to log in to individual vCenters from VMware Aria Operations activated Allows vCenter users to log in to individual vCenters using the VMware Aria Operations UI.
Allow vCenter users to log in from vCenter clients activated Allows vCenter users to log in from vCenter clients.
Allow vCenter users to log in to all vCenters using the VMware Aria Operations UI activated Allows concurrent UI login sessions per user. Once changed, this setting affects the subsequent login sessions.
Concurrent UI login sessions activated Allows concurrent UI login sessions per user. Once changed, this setting affects the subsequent login sessions.
Allow non-imported vIDM user access activated Allows non-imported VMware Identity Manager users to be created automatically as read-only users upon first access. If deactivated, only VMware Identity Manager imported users or users belonging to imported VMware Identity Manager groups will be granted access.
Password Change activated Allows the users to modify the settings required to change their passwords.
Login Message activated Allows the user to display the login message when the user launches the login page in VMware Aria Operations. You can set a message that requires explicit consent, for example terms and conditions or a Standard Mandatory DoD Notice.

Settings in the Reclamation Category

Settings in the reclamation category display information about powered -off VMs, idle VMs, snapshots, and orphaned disks.

Table 4. Global Settings Default Values and Descriptions
Setting Entry Description
Include Powered off VMs for Reclamation activated VMs that have been continuously powered off during the defined time period.

The total storage capacity used is reclaimable. Total storage reclaimable cost is computed by multiplying storage rate with storage utilization. The direct cost of VM is also attributed.

Idle VM Management
Include Idle VMs for Reclamation activated You can configure the following parameters based on which VMware Aria Operations calculates idle VMs:
  • How many days the VM has been idle to be classified as a reclaimable idle VM.
  • The number of days before which the provisioned VMs are not considered in the classification of reclaimable idle.
VM Idleness Criteria 100 MHz of CPU for 100% of Time Defines the criteria to identify VMs that remain idle during the defined time period.
You can set the following values:
  • MHz of CPU consumption of VMs, and percentage of the time VMs have less than defined MHz of CPU within each day.
Include Snapshots for Reclamation activated VM snapshots that have existed for the entire defined time period.

Snapshots of a VM use storage space and such storage is reclaimable. The reclaimable cost is computed by multiplying the storage rate with the reclaimable storage value.

Orphaned Disk Management
Include Orphaned Disks for Reclamation deactivated

Orphaned disks are VMDKs that are associated with a VM which are not in inventory, but still available in a data store. You can configure the minimum number of days for which VMDKs not related to any existing VM will be reported as orphaned and appear under the Orphaned Disks in the Reclaim page.

Orphaned Disks Collection Time 8:00 pm Host time to collect orphaned disks.
Note: VMware Aria Operations checks for orphaned VMDKs in the vSphere Client instances based on the set time. The Orphaned Disks Collection and the Cost Calculation settings are interrelated. It is recommended to schedule orphaned disks collection before cost calculation so that the cost is calculated based on the recent list of reclaimable orphaned VMDKs. The default value for Orphaned Disks Collection is set to 8:00 PM, and the default value for Cost Calculation is set to 9:00 PM.

You can navigate to the Cost/Price section under Administration > Global Settings and change the value of the Cost Calculation time.

Settings in the System Settings Category

Table 5. Global Setting Default Values and Descriptions
Setting Entry Description
Session Timeout

30 minutes

If your connection to VMware Aria Operations is idle for the specified amount of time, you are logged out of the application.

You must provide credentials to log back in.

Dynamic Threshold Calculation activated

Determines whether to calculate normal levels of threshold violation for all objects.

If the setting is deactivated, the following area of VMware Aria Operations does not work or are not displayed:

  • Alert symptom definitions based on dynamic thresholds will not work
  • Metric charts that display normal behavior are not present

Deactivate this setting only if you have no alternative options for managing resource constraints for your VMware Aria Operations system.

Customer Experience Improvement Program activated
Determines whether to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program by having VMware Aria Operations send anonymous usage data to https://vmware.com.
Note: CEIP is activated by default when you install a new VMware Aria Operations instance or when you upgrade to version 8.14 of VMware Aria Operations. For more information, see 'Logging in to VMware Aria Operations' in Getting Started with VMware Aria Operations Guide.
Deactivate this setting only if you want to opt out of CEIP.
Note: If you deactivate this setting in version 8.14 of VMware Aria Operations, it stays deactivated for future releases.
System access URL You can specify the URL that is used to access the system when a load balancer is used. The URL that you enter here is displayed in the outbound notifications and while sharing dashboards. The IP /FQDN of the URL is used to register the vCenter Server when you configure the vCenter Server cloud account.
Docker image default registry URL You can specify the URL that is used to pull the docker images for containerized adapters. This URL can be overridden by installed management packs.

You can bring your own content using the containerized adapters. For more information, contact [email protected] .

Automated Actions activated

Determines whether to allow VMware Aria Operations to automate actions. When an alert triggered, the alert provides recommendations for remediation. You can automate an action to remediate an alert when the recommendation is the first priority for that alert. You activate actionable alerts in your policies.

Credential ownership enforcement activated This setting enforces credential ownership and allows users to only access credentials they own.
Deactivate this option to modify credentials owned by other users. Once deactivated, you can view, or edit credentials created by other users, or delete credentials that are not in use.
Note: After deactivating, if a user edits a credential owned by another user and then reactivates this option, the ownership of the credential transfers to the user who edited it last.
For more information on credentials, see Configuring Credentials in Integrations and Manage Credentials.
Activate Standard Certificate Validation deactivated

This option activates certificate verification to Test Connection in the Create or Modify AI screen, using a standard verification flow.

The option checks CA authority.

  • Certificate Subject DN
  • Subject alternative name
  • Certificate validity period
  • Revocation list
This option also presents dialogs to user if one of those checks fail. It is up to the adapter implementation on how the adapter checks source certificate validity during a normal collection cycle. On a usual scenario, adapters just perform a thumb-print verification. However, in case this flag is activated, Test connection validates certificates in full scale and accepts certificates that are matching all criteria without any user dialogs.
Threshold For Adapters Certificate Expiration Alert

5 for critical

14 for immediate

30 for warning

Set the number of days before which the system must raise certification expiration alerts.

To change the values of Critical, Immediate and Warning alerts, click the corresponding icon and move them along the slider. Alternatively, set the values manually.

Click Save after you make your changes.

Note: For critical alerts, an alert banner is displayed under Home > Quick Start on the day of certification expiry. For example, if the critical alert is set to 10, then on the 10th day, an alert banner is displayed in the Home page.