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

30 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.

You can edit this setting from a minimum of one day to a maximum of 30 days in VMware Aria Operations.
Deleted Objects

144 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.

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.

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

60 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 60 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 60 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 60 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.

You can edit this setting for a value from 10 days to 60 days in VMware Aria Operations.
Generated Reports Retention

90 days

Number of days to retain generated reports.

Symptoms/Alerts

30 days

Number of days to retain canceled alerts and symptoms.

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

You cannot edit this setting in VMware Aria Operations.
Time Series Data Retention

3 months

Number of months that you want to retain the collected and calculated metric data for the monitored objects. This setting is set to 3 months by default for 5 minutes interval data retention.

Additional Time Series Retention

12 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.

You can edit this setting for a value of 0 months to 12 months in VMware Aria Operations. If you specify 0 as the value, then this will effectively disable the Additional Time Series Data Retention time and only data specified in Time Series Retention is stored. This setting ensures that after 3 months of normal retention for 5 minutes, the fourth month data is rolled up into a one hour roll up.
Near Real-Time Monitoring Data Retention 3 days The number of days to retain the near real-time data collected from the vCenter Server in VMware Aria Operations.

You cannot edit this setting in VMware Aria Operations.
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 disabled

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

Maintain Relationship History disabled

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
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.
Cost Calculation activated The host time at which cost calculations are run.
Cluster Utilization Ceiling Factor 5 Ceiling for Expected Utilization when running on Actual Utilization.
Tag Based Costing Metrics Disabled When activated, VMware Aria Operations additional cost metrics per tag.
Tag Based Pricing Metrics Disabled 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
Concurrent UI login sessions activated Allows concurrent UI login sessions per user. Once changed, this setting affects the subsequent login sessions.

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 disabled

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

120 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 disabled, 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

Disable 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. Deactivate this setting only if you want to opt out of CEIP.

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.

Activate Standard Certificate Validation disabled

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.