VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.16 Release Notes

Here is the release date and build number for the VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.16 release. Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

Release	Release Date	Build Number
VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.16	February 29, 2024	23377566

Note:

Following the VMware by Broadcom Day 2 transition on May 6, 2024, Customer Connect has been migrated to the Broadcom Support. This migration impacts the VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle as follows:
- All Product Support Packs, along with product and patch binaries, will now need to be downloaded from the Broadcom Support Portal
- Users must then manually map these into the VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle
- Additionally, all online download methods previously available in the VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle will be disabled in the user interface upon upgrading to our next release.
Product Support Packs are cumulative, incorporating all updates from previous product support packs as well as patches into the latest version.

If you are considering upgrading from VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle version 8.12.0 to 8.16.0, it is recommended to first install VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.12 Patch 3 before proceeding with the upgrade to version 8.16.0.

Similarly, if you are planning to upgrade from VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle version 8.14.0 to 8.16.0, it is advisable to install VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.14 Patch 1 or be on the latest product support pack before proceeding with the upgrade to version 8.16.0.

If you have your upgraded VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle to 8.16.0 which was released on February 20, 2024, then you may check for new build released on February 29, 2024 and proceed to upgrade to this new build. Remember the version would not change, just the build number would change in this scenario. This would be a build to build upgrade.
- VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.16.0 Build 23334789 was released on February 20, 2024
- VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.16.0 Build 23377566 was released on February 29, 2024

What's New

Here are the key features and capabilities of VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.16.0:

Support for vSphere 8 License Keys for vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation
- VMware Aria Suite products now support vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus License keys generated for VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation. Instead of using different license keys, vSphere keys can be used to entitle VMware Aria Suite products. The license keys must be applied on a vCenter cloud account and VMware Aria Suite products will fetch the entitlement after the vCenter is registered
- To support the new vSphere license keys, VMware Aria Suite products can now be deployed in evaluation mode
  - Product versions which support evaluation mode are:
    - VMware Aria Automation 8.16.1
    - VMware Aria Operations 8.16.0
    - VMware Aria Operations for Logs 8.16.0
    - VMware Aria Operations for Networks 6.12.1
  - VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator does not require a license. It is licensed by integrating with either VMware Aria Automation or vSphere.
  - VMware Aria Automation Config requires a license.
Password for admin@local to be stored as an OVF property

When deploying with the OVF tool, users can enter a personalized password instead of relying on the default password. This is especially helpful when users prefer not to use Easy Installer.
"Only Sync" option while executing vSphere Template content-type capture

When selected, this ensures that only the content library sync operation is triggered and completed, rather than provisioning a template out of the synced library on the destination endpoint.

Known Issues

Unable to trigger VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle upgrade to 8.16.0

Following a successful upgrade precheck and the submission of the upgrade request for VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle, users are redirected back to the System Upgrade page without any accompanying information. When inspecting /var/log/vmware/capengine/core-engine.log you see an exception stating "Error in executing request. Error: Operation not allowed in the current state of workflow". In order to fix this issue follow the steps mentioned in the KB article: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/96749
Product Deployment and Day-2 Operations failure due to SHA1 weak ciphers/algorithms removal from VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle
- After applying VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.14 Patch 1, you may encounter deployment and day-2 operation failures, attributed to the elimination of weak algorithms in Suite Lifecycle. To prevent such issues, it is recommended to either turn on FIPS in VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle or implement the specified workarounds on other VMware Aria Products, as outlined in the KB 95835.
- Sample Exception : InvalidKeySpecException: key spec not recognized
Upgrade fails with the message "The /dev/sda4 partition has insufficient free disk space"

During the upgrade process, a precheck runs to verify available disk space on /partition. In environments where the disk space is less than 3 GB, the upgrade might fail with an insufficient free disk space error in the Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager UI.

Workaround: To proceed with the upgrade, you must clear the disk space on /partition. See https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/95238.
Splash Icon in VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle login page does not appear in Firefox browser

This is a cosmetic issue. The graphic on the login page is not rendered.
Build versions are not updated following upgrade

After upgrading VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.12 to 8.16, the version and build number are not updated under Lifecycle Operations > Settings > System Details and post-update scripts do not execute completely.

Workaround: You can take steps to address this issue before or after upgrading.
- Before upgrading, check the for the file /var/log/bootstrap/fips_disable.
  - If you find the file, proceed with the upgrade.
  - If you do not find the file:
    1. Create the file: touch /var/log/bootstrap/fips_disable.
    2. Change permissions: chmod 644 /var/log/bootstrap/fips_disable.
    3. Proceed with the upgrade to VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.16.
- If you encounter the issue after upgrading, follow the steps in https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/95231.
VMware Aria Operations for Networks installation fails

VMware Aria Operations for Networks installation fails during the "DeployOvf" task when being deployed on vCenter Server 8.0 U2.vCenter Server would display an error stating "A general system error occurred: PBM error occurred during PreCreateCheckCallback: Invalid state"

Workaround: Map the privilege "Storage Views --> View" and "VM storage policies" --> "View VM storage policies” to the service account.
Customization Spec check-in to source control using Content Management is not supported

After a customization spec is captured from a vSphere endpoint, checking it into source control is not supported.

No Workaround.
Bulk Script Execution from Global level is not supported for tenanted products

Script execution as a Day-2 action is not valid for products with tenants such as VMware Aria Orchestrator and VMware Aria Automation Config.
Capture & Deploy actions against VMware Aria Operations 8.14 when FIPS mode is enabled fails

No Workaround
Adding a standalone Automation Config deployment as an endpoint to VMware Aria Automation causes the inventory sync to fail

When an inventory sync is initiated in VMware Aria Automation, the request identifies its Automation Config associations. When Automation Config is added to VMware Aria Automation outside of VMware Aria Lifecycle Manager, you will see a failed import request on the VMware Aria Lifecycle Manager requests page for the Automation Config. The reason for the failure is that the additional configuration steps performed during the deployment of a VMware Aria Automation integrated with Automation Config are not executed when a standalone Automation Config is added to VMware Aria Automation.

Workaround: Remove the integration created in VMware Aria Automation and use VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle to deploy VMware Aria Automation integrated with Automation Config. NOTE: This is a recommended best practice when deploying VMware Aria Automation integrated with Automation Config,
Issue with releasing custom forms without cloud templates

If a custom form is released without a cloud template in the target VMware Aria Automation environment, the custom form will not be visible in the target VMware Aria Automation environment even if the custom form appears successfully released in VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle.

Workaround: Before releasing a custom form, ensure that the associated composite cloud template has been released or created first in the target VMware Aria Automation.
Managing renamed VMware Aria Automation content types

Renamed content types must be recaptured from the VMware Aria Automation endpoints, and then checked in to the source control endpoints. If the content is present in the source control, then you must manually rename the folder in the source control endpoints, then check out the content from the source control endpoints.

No workaround.

Resolved Issues

The following issues have been resolved:

Blank APUAT assessment report issue has been fixed.
Disk space precheck for VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle appliance has been added.
VMware Aria Operations with Cloud Proxy deployment issue has been fixed.