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 Operations > Configurations, and then click the Custom Groups tile. 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
Custom Group Tab
Name Meaningful name of the object group.
Meaningful description for 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 Tab
Membership Criteria

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.
    Note: For the Metrics and Properties criteria drop-down menu, the metrics presented by default are a subset of available metrics. If the desired metric is not represented, use the Select Object button in the title bar of the data selection tree to re-filter the displayed list.
  • 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.
Objects to Include/Exclude Tab
Objects To Always Exclude

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.

  • Select Objects Pane > Inventory Tab. Displays the list of available object groups. Click on an object group to view the objects in the right pane. You can select some or all the objects in the object group and drag and drop it to the left pane for exclusion from the custom group.
  • Select Objects Pane > Custom Group Tab. Displays the list of available custom groups. Click on a custom group and drag and drop it to the left pane for exclusion from the custom group.
  • From the left pane, select the objects you want to delete and click Remove to delete the objects that you have added for exclusion from the custom group.
Objects To Always Include

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 an allowlist.

  • Select Objects Pane > Inventory Tab. Displays the list of available object groups. Click on an object group to view the objects in the right pane. You can select some or all the objects in the object group and drag and drop them to the left pane for inclusion into the custom group.
  • Select Objects Pane > Custom Group Tab. Displays the list of available custom groups. Click on a custom group and drag and drop it to the left pane for inclusion into the custom group.
  • From the left pane, select the objects you want to delete and click Remove to delete the objects that you have added for inclusion to the custom group.
Assign Custom Properties Tab
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.
  • Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate between the tabs.
  • Use the Next button to move to the next tab.
  • Use Create button to save and create the custom group.
  • Use the Preview button to preview the list of objects in the group and 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.