VMware Aria Operations SaaS Release Notes

VMware Aria Operations Check for additions and updates to these release notes. Starting with the April 2023 release, the product name is now changed from vRealize Operations Cloud to VMware Aria Operations. The documentation page for VMware Aria Operations is https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Aria-Operations/index.html The documentation page for VMware Aria Operations for Integrations is https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Aria-Operations-for-Integrations/index.html For vRealize Operations Cloud release notes, see the PDF file: https://docs.vmware.com/en/vRealize-Operations/services/rn/vrealize-operations-cloud-release-notes.pdf

What's New July 03 2023

Microsoft Azure Government 

• Added support for Azure Government subscriptions.

• You can manage subscriptions through the native Microsoft Azure integration.

• You can choose between commercial or government subscriptions with the respective services and regions.

• If you use commercial subscriptions, you can leverage dashboards, alerts, and content available for commercial subscriptions and use them for government subscriptions without any additional configurations.

Cloud Proxy Command Line Interface

Cloud Proxy command line interface is enhanced to include connectivity checks. It includes capabilities to perform connectivity checks to predetermined end points such as Gateway, S3, and cluster nodes depending on whether the cluster is on-prem or SaaS. It also includes capabilities to check the trace route and view the environment details. For more details, see Using the Cloud Proxy Command-Line Interface.

Notification Heartbeat

Notification heartbeat allows you to leverage the Notification Rules to resend active alerts to desired end points repeatedly as long as they remain active. For more information, see Notification Rule.

Metric search in Troubleshooting Workbench

• Enhanced capability to search for objects using queries.

  • You can use metrics, properties, or super metrics associated with object types.

  • You can add conditions using multiple metrics and conditions.

• Addition of auto-complete options to help build queries.

• Automatic syntax checks of the query.

• Added a new page for search results:

  • You can deep dive into the metric.

  • You can perform roll ups.

  • You can launch the Troubleshooting Workbench.

• Search is saved automatically for the duration of the session.

For more information, see Discovering Potential Evidences Using the Troubleshooting Workbench.

Compliance Pack Upgrades

• The CIS Compliance Pack is updated to support the following benchmarks:

  • CIS_VMware_ESXi_6.7_Benchmark_V1.3.0

  • CIS_VMware_ESXi_7.0_Benchmark_V1.2.0

• The NSX-T Compliance pack is updated to support the following standards:

  • NSX-T 3.2 Security Configuration Guide

  • NSX-T 3.1 Security Configuration Guide

  • NSX-T 3.0 Security Configuration Guide

Launchpad

You can now view videos that explain a feature when you click the Learn More option from some cards in the Launchpad.

New Availability Metric for Application Monitoring Objects

A new metric called 'Telegraf availability' is added for Application Monitoring objects to understand whether data is being received from the Telegraf agent. It is applicable for both curated and open source Telegraf agents. For more information, see Operating System Metrics.

PowerShell Scripts Collect Data for Credential-less Service Discovery

Service Discovery will now leverage PowerShell scripts to collect data from Windows VMs in credential-less scenarios. For more information, see Configure Service and Application Discovery.

What's New April 14 2023

Rebranding of vRealize Operations to VMware Aria Operations

In this release, we are excited to announce that vRealize Operations, VMware's powerful platform for intelligent IT operations management, has been rebranded to VMware Aria Operations. This rebranding reflects our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that help you optimize your IT operations and accelerate your digital transformation journey. With VMware Aria Operations, you can continue to rely on the same robust capabilities that vRealize Operations provided. Additionally, you can expect even more advanced features and functionality as we continue to invest in the platform. The rebranding will not impact your existing deployment of vRealize Operations. You will continue to receive the same level of support and service you have come to expect from VMware.

Simplified User Experience with Launchpad

• Unified use-case based UI workflow to represent both existing and new capabilities.

• Launchpad replaces the existing Quick Start Page.

  For more information, see the topic: After You Log In

Multi-Cloud Overview

• Easy access and visibility of all objects that are monitored in VMware Aria Operations.

• Provides a list of all multi-cloud and public clouds that you can monitor with a summary view of each cloud.

• The summary view provides insights into the capacity, cost, services, and sustainability score for the selected cloud.

For more information, see the topic: Monitoring Multiple Clouds Accounts in VMware Aria Operations

VMware Cloud on AWS Government Cloud Account

• Manage and monitor VMware Cloud on AWS government cloud with a simplified and dedicated cloud account.

• Discover VMware Cloud on AWS government cloud and configure the adapters to monitor vCenter, vSAN and NSX-T.

• Traverse VMware Cloud on AWS government cloud objects, view summary pages, configuration maximums and get alerts for configuration maximums.

• Plan workload migration using What-if migration scenario to migrate workload to VMware Cloud on AWS government cloud.

• Run compliance analysis for virtual machines against various benchmarks, optimize and Rightsize workloads.

• Assess and plan cost based on rate card costing.

• View dashboards to gain additional insights in VMware Cloud on AWS government cloud environment.

For more information, see the topic: Configuring VMC on AWS Government Cloud Endpoint in VMware Aria Operations.

Compatibility with the Cluster Rename Feature in VMC on AWS

• If resource pool names change due to renaming of clusters in VMC on AWS, the dashboard "VMC Management VM monitoring" has been made compatible with the new resource pool name and the jobs that are run through the automation central continues to exclude VMC on AWS management VMs.

Alerts Deactivation

• An initiative is underway in Aria Operations to reduce Alert noise in customer’s environments. As part of this release, a set of vCenter alerts have been deactivated out-of the box. To know more about the list of deactivated alerts, the impact it has on your current environment, and how to activate them on specific resources within your environment, see the topic: Activating the Deactivated Alerts.

Transport Node State Metric Data Collection is Deactivated

• In the current release of VMware Aria Operations, collecting the node state through API has been deactivated by default due to performance degradation in both VMware Aria Operations and VMware NSX. However, you can still activate this feature through the policy settings, but it is not recommended as it may impact performance. Alternatively, you can collect the node state data through NSX-T Direct Alerts. This feature is still available and can be used without any performance degradation. To import NSX-T Alerts, see the topic: Alerts in NSX-T.

Capacity Management

• Ability to select pre-defined, custom VM profiles within a scenario for what-if analysis. Simplifies scenario creation by eliminating the need to manually input VM configuration details. 

• Ability to auto-select current date as start date on running a what-if scenario that has an outdated start date. 

  Note:

  • End date remains unchanged. 

  • Not applicable for what-if scenarios with both start and end dates outdated.

Enhanced Logs experience

• Log trend in log analysis: A new log trend feature has been added to help you better correlate metrics with logs. With this feature, you can view the trend of log messages over time, making it easier to identify patterns and anomalies.

• Filters support for advanced troubleshooting: Added support for filters in log analysis, enabling you to quickly and easily find the relevant log messages. You can filter logs based on various criteria such as hostname, severity level, source, and time range.

• Log fields support for log messages: Provides structure to unstructured log data by extracting key fields from log messages. You can use these fields to filter logs, as well as to create charts based on specific log fields.

• Consistent experience on all logs screens: Experience the same log experience across all log screens such as Log Analysis, Logs tab in Object browser, Logs tab in Troubleshooting workbench, and Logs widget in Dashboards.

For more information, see the topic, Integration of VMware Aria Operations (SaaS) and VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS).

Workload Placement Enhancements

• Support for allocation model in Day 2 Operations has been added and will be available as a feature in this release.

• Support for Cross Network has been added in Workload Placement as well. Now Day 2 operations will be able to move VMs as a part of rebalancing the workloads even if the clusters are in a separate network.

For more information, see the topics:

• Allocation and Demand Model in Workload Optimization

• Workload Automation Details

Google Cloud VMware Engine cloud account

• Manage and monitor Google Cloud VMware Engine with a simplified and dedicated cloud account.

• Discover Google Cloud VMware Engine and configure the adapters to monitor vCenter, vSAN, and NSX-T.

• Traverse Google Cloud VMware Engine objects, view summary pages, configuration maximums, and get alerts for configuration maximums.

• Plan workload migration using What-if migration scenario to migrate workload to Google Cloud VMware Engine.

• Run compliance analysis for virtual machines against various benchmarks, optimize and Rightsize workloads.

• Assess and plan cost based on either bill-based costing or rate card costing.

• View dashboards to gain additional insights in Google Cloud VMware Engine environment.

  For more information, see the following topics and the associated child topics:

  • Google Cloud VMware Engine

  • Google Cloud VMware Engine Dashboards

  • Summary Tabs for Google Cloud VMware Engine

Cost Analysis

• Conduct a cost and price analysis for your objects or groups in various management layers such as vCenter, vCloud Director, Horizon, and CloudHealth.

• Create a graphical representation and table to compare and evaluate the gathered data.

• Save the analysis definition to avoid repeating the process in the future.

• Export the analysis table for offline viewing purposes.

  For more information, see the following topic and the associated child topics: Cost Analysis.

Consolidated script for Telegraf agent installation

• One single script for all the installation flows - product-managed, user-managed, and open-source Telegraf agent.

• Token based approach instead of username and password for all agent types.

• New names of the agents:

  • Product-managed agent (OS and basic services monitoring)

  • User-managed agent (Physical hosts)

  • Open-source agent (Advanced monitoring)

For more information, see the following topics:

• Install/Uninstall an Agent Using a Script on Linux Platforms and Install/Uninstall an Agent Using a Script on a Windows Platform

• Monitoring Applications using Open Source Telegraf on a Linux Platform and Monitoring Applications using Open Source Telegraf on a Windows Platform

• Start Monitoring Physical Servers Using the Telegraf Deployment Script on a Linux Platform and Start Monitoring Physical Servers Using the Telegraf Deployment Script on a Windows Platform

Dashboards: You can now share dashboards along with edit permissions

For more information, see the following topics:

• Manage Dashboards

• Share Dashboards with Users

VMware Cloud Foundation Operations

VMware Cloud Foundation Operations allows you to view all VCF deployments along with their associated management and workload domains in one place. You can also view the health of the associated management applications. The health of management applications are evaluated across the following dimensions:

• Availability indicates if the application is reachable.

• Virtual Machines indicate the availability of the virtual machines on which the applications run.

• Services indicate the availability of all services associated with the application.

• Certificates indicate the validity of certificates associated with applications.

• Passwords indicate the validity of passwords associated with applications.

In order to use this capability the following pre-requisite must be met:

• Configure VMware Cloud Foundation account in repository.

• Activate VMware Infrastructure Health from the repository.

For more information, see the following topics:

• Using VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Operations

• Configuring VMware Infrastructure Health

Troubleshoot faster with metric search

• Use Global Search to search for objects using queries.

  • Use metrics, properties, or super metrics associated with object types.

  • Add conditions using multiple metrics and conditions.

• Auto-complete options to help build queries.

• Automatic syntax checks of the query.

• New look for search results

  • Deep dive into metric

  • Perform roll ups

  • Launch Troubleshooting Workbench

For more information, see the following topics:

• Enhanced Search Capability

• Searching for Metrics, Properties, or Object Types Using Queries

Simplify creation and editing of collector groups and cloud proxies

• Change the collector groups place in the product to a new tab next to cloud proxies in Data Sources page.

• Simplify the Edit and View Details for collector groups and individual cloud proxies.

• Validation for reassigning cloud proxies already added to the current or other collector groups.

For more information, see the following topics:

• Managing Collector Groups

• Managing Cloud Proxies in VMware Aria Operations

Rest API access via Cloud Proxy

• This feature allows you to access VMware Aria Operations Rest API suite via Cloud Proxy.

For more information, see the following topic:

• Using APIs with VMware Aria Operations Cloud Proxy

Schedule snapshot deletion with specific name and size in Automation Central

For more information, see the topic,Create Job from Automation Central.

Cost Continuous Improvements

• Return on Investment dashboard has been renamed to Cost Optimization dashboard.

• Cost Settings has been renamed to Cost Drivers.

Known Issues

Issue: VMware Health Infrastructure continues to collect non -existing Host system resources that are removed from the vCenter inventory.

Workaround: Stop the VMware Health Infrastructure account for the collector on which the vCenter is running, then delete the resource from the inventory, and then restart the account. 

Product Support Notice

REST Notification plug-in, SMARTS Notification plug-in, and old Email Templates

The REST Notification plug-in, SMARTS Notification plug-in, and old Email Templates available through SUITE-API have been deprecated and will be deleted in the next release of VMware Aria Operations. To continue using the functionality provided by the plug-in you will need to switch to the available alternatives listed below:

• Old templates will be replaced by the new Email Template which is available via the product UI and the SUITE-API.

• The REST plug-in can be replaced with the webhook plug-in.

• The SMARTS plug-in should be replaced by VMware Aria Operations Management Pack for VMware Smart Assurance.