VMware vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1 |  2020 | Build 16522874 VMware vRealize Operations Manager Upgrade PAK from 6.6.1, 6.7, and 7.x to 8.1.x |  2020 | Build 16522883 Note: This upgrade .pak file includes the OS upgrade files from SUSE to Photon and the vApp upgrade files. VMware vRealize Operations Manager Upgrade PAK from 8.x to 8.1.1  |  2020 | Build 16522872 Note: This upgrade .pak file includes the OS upgrade files from Photon to Photon and the vApp upgrade files. VMware vRealize Operations Manager 8.1 Endpoint Operations Agents |  2020 | Build 15988467 VMware vRealize Operations Manager 8.1 Endpoint Operations Agents PAK Upgrade |  2020 | Build 15988489 VMware vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1 Pre-Upgrade Assessment Tool |  2020 | Build 16427901 VMware vRealize Application Remote Collector 8.1.1 |  2020 | Build 16400949 Check frequently for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's in the Release Notes

The release notes cover the following topics:

• What's New?
• System Requirements
• Installing and Updating vRealize Operations Manager
• Resolved Issues
• Known Issues

What's New

This is a maintenance release for vRealize Operations Manager which resolves a few important security and functionality issues identified in the product. 

We continue to deliver new and enhanced capabilities for self-driving operations to help customers optimize, plan, and scale VMware Cloud, which includes on-premises private cloud or VMware SDDC in multiple public clouds such as VMware Cloud on AWS, while at the same time unifying multi-cloud monitoring. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), this release takes us one step closer to the Cloud Operations vision of providing a unified, secure, stable and performant operations platform, deliver continuous performance optimization, efficient capacity and cost management, proactive planning, app-aware intelligent remediation, and integrated compliance.

For the list of fixed issues, refer to the Resolved Issues section. 

System Requirements

Review this section before you install or update vRealize Operations Manager.

Sizing and Scaling

The CPU, memory, and disk requirements that meet the needs of a particular environment depend on the number and type of objects in your environment and data collected. This includes the number and type of adapters installed, the use of HA (High Availability) and CA (Continuous Availability), the duration of data retention, and the quantity of specific data points of interest. VMware updates Knowledge Base article 2093783 with the most current information about sizing and scaling. The Knowledge Base article includes overall maximums and spreadsheet calculations that provide a recommendation based on the number of objects and metrics you expect to monitor.

Deployment Formats

You can deploy vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1 with VMware virtual appliance.

If you are deploying a vRealize Operations Manager virtual appliance, use a VMware vSphere Client to connect to a VMware vCenter Server, and deploy the virtual appliance through the vCenter Server instance. The vRealize Operations Manager virtual appliance must be deployed on hosts that are:

• ESX/ESXi 6.0 or later (with the exception of ESX/ESXi 6.5 that must be with a patch not lower than ESX/ESXi 6.5 Update 1) and managed by VMware vCenter Server 6.0 or later. 
  • ESX/ESXi 6.5 with build number lower than 5969303 must be updated to a higher patch.
• If you have vRealize Operations Manager virtual appliance deployed on ESXi 5.5 hosts, you must first upgrade the vCenter Server to versions 6.0 or 6.5, and then upgrade to vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1.

Hardware Versions

The minimum hardware version required for vRealize Operations Manager 8.x releases is version 11. If your vRealize Operations Manager virtual appliance had a hardware version earlier than 11, you must first upgrade to hardware version 11 on vRealize Operations Manager virtual appliance and then upgrade to vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1.

Applying License Keys

IMPORTANT: A new license key is required for upgrading vRealize Operations Manager 7.0 and later versions. All license keys except vRealize Operations for Horizon, vSOM Enterprise Plus and its add-ons are invalidated. The product will work in evaluation mode until a new valid license key, which can be obtained from the MyVMware portal, is installed. After you log in to the user interface of vRealize Operations Manager, if you see that you are using an evaluation license, consider applying for a new license before the end of the 60-day evaluation period. 

For more details on entitlements of vRealize Operations editions, see the edition comparison table from the following link: https://www.vmware.com/products/vrealize-operations.html.

SDDC Compliance 

To ensure compliance of your vSphere, VMware Cloud on AWS,  and vSAN 7.0, 6.7, 6.5, and 6.0 objects, and also NSX-T 2.3, 2.4, and 2.5, and NSX-V 6.3.x and 6.4.x objects, vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1 includes compliance alerts for VMware vSphere Security Configuration Guide versions 6.7 Update 1, 6.5, and 6.0. These security configuration guide alerts are based on the corresponding object types. Some of the alerts and symptoms are available only for backward compatibility with older versions of vSphere, even though the current release supports the latest vSphere Security Configuration Guide 6.7 Update 1. 

Note: Compliance rules will work on vSphere 7.0 objects as well. However, those rules are based on vSphere Security Configuration Guide 6.7 Update 1. Compliance rules will be updated after the new Security Configuration Guide for vSphere 7.0 is published. 

Solutions Support

In addition to the VMware solutions (vSphere, Endpoint Operations Management, and vRealize Log Insight), see the Solution Exchange marketplace for many more solutions. These solutions work with Virtual Appliance single or multiple nodes.

VMware Product Compatibility

Note: The VMware Product Interoperability Matrix provides details about the compatibility of vRealize Operations Manager with VMware products.

Browser Support

This vRealize Operations Manager release supports all current Web browsers, although only the following browsers were tested with this release:

• Google Chrome: Version 81 and 83
• Mozilla Firefox: Version 77 and 78
• Microsoft Internet Explorer: Version 11 (limited support)
• Microsoft Edge 17 and 18
• Safari 12 and 13

Installing and Upgrading vRealize Operations Manager

Upgrading to vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1, resets out-of-the-box content as part of the software upgrade process even if the Reset Default Content button is unchecked during the upgrade. This implies that the user modifications made to default content such as alert definitions, symptom definitions, recommendations, policies, views, dashboards, widgets, and reports are overwritten. You need to clone or backup the content before you upgrade to vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1.

Note: There are two different upgrade .pak files to upgrade to vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1:

• To upgrade from vRealize Operations Manager 6.6.1, 6.7, 7.0, or 7.5 to vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1 you must download and apply the vRealize Operations Manager - Virtual Appliance upgrade for 6.6.1, 6.7 and 7.x .pak file.
• To upgrade from vRealize Operations Manager 8.0, 8.0.1, or 8.1 to 8.1.1 you must download and apply the vRealize Operations Manager - Virtual Appliance upgrade for 8.x .pak file.

Note: While upgrading to vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1, the expected size of the root partition for Photon OS is 20 GB. For information about this requirement, see KB 75298.

Unless upgrading from vRealize Operations Manager 6.7 or above, it is imperative that you run the Pre-Upgrade Assessment tool. A pre-upgrade assessment report that is generated will provide you with the recommended replacements. This tool provides you with an impact analysis following the reduction of metrics in various versions of the product. For more details on using the Pre-Upgrade Assessment Tool, see KB 78052. It is always recommended to run the Pre-Upgrade Assessment tool before an upgrade.

Refer to the vRealize Operations Upgrade Center that has information about upgrading vRealize Operations. Refer to the VMware Lifecycle Product Matrix for information about supported versions of vRealize Operations Manager.

After upgrading, it is necessary to update Endpoint Operations agents. For more information, see KB 2137709 and KB 2138748.

The vRealize Operations Manager Information Center has detailed information about installation and software updates.

Refer to the vRealize Operations Manager vApp Deployment and Configuration Guide that provides guidance for a vRealize Operations Manager virtual appliance, before you install or update vRealize Operations Manager.

Deploy vSphere with Operations Management (any edition) and vRealize Operations Standard together in one deployment.

Deploy vCloud Suite/vRealize Suite Standard, Advanced, or Enterprise and vRealize Operations Advanced or Enterprise edition together in one deployment.

Note: You can also install vRealize Operations Manager by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. For more information, see Creating an Environment. To automate installation, configuration, upgrade, patch, configuration management, drift remediation and health from within a single pane of glass, you can use vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. If you are a new user, click here to install vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. This provides IT managers or cloud admin resources to focus on business-critical initiatives, while improving time to value (TTV), reliability, and consistency.

See the Installation and Upgrade Issues section for issues related to installing vRealize Operations Manager or updating the software.

Resolved Issues

For the list of security vulnerabilities addressed in this release, see KB 79701. Other resolved issues have been listed below.

The resolved issues are grouped as follows.

• Installation and Upgrade Issues
• General Issues

Installation and Upgrade Issues

• Upgrade from vRealize Operations Manager 8.0.1 to 8.1 fails with the error: “FailedPAK action ‘run master postgres db upgrade’ failed”.

• After upgrading to 8.1, notifications are missing.

• Unable to login to vRealize Operations Manager using SSO authentication.

• A vCenter Python Adapter error occurs after you upgrade to vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.

• Logs of GemFire analytics and collector are overridden when services are restarted.

General Issues

• Summary page: For CPU, the "Shares" value is missing in "Configuration"- "Resource Allocation".

• Unable to authenticate with a vRealize Identity Manager account via REST API when the password contains special characters.

• Alert cancellation does not work when it is a multi-node setup with the HA option enabled.

• Unable to run out-of-the-box reports with a Standard license.

• Trend, Distribution, Image, and Text view reports do not show any data in the PDF format.

• Unable to create a VMware Cloud on AWS Cloud Account with an Advanced license.

• After reported violations are removed, VMs report the following error: "Virtual Machine is violating Risk Profile 1 in VMware vSphere Security Configuration Guide for vSphere version 6.5".

• The VMware Cloud on AWS adapter is unable to show the bills as the billing API returns an empty response.

• The REST notification plugin does not send an authorization header for basic authentication.

• HCX and other management VMs are missing from the VMware Cloud on AWS - VMC Management VM Monitoring dashboard.

• Objects do not receive data from the adapter instance.

• NSX-T Management appliances appear for about five minutes when the environments are connected in vRealize Operations Manager and then they disappear.

• An alert rule defined for multiple alert definitions does not send alerts. A new alert rule is not set for all devices.

• When the Instance Breakdown option is specified for a List view and when no instance name is specified for the instanced metric, a NullPointerException is displayed.

• There are no active alerts in the Environment > vSphere World > Summary tab even though there are multiple critical and immediate alerts displayed.

• After you upgrade from vRealize Operations Manager 7.5 to 8.1, the Manage User Group operations permission is not available from the role.

• CPU Usage (MHz) per core is broken by default in the VMware Cloud on AWS - VMC Management VM Monitoring dashboard.

• During Service Discovery, if you delete VMs from the vCenter Server, the SDMP Adapter instance displays the following status: "Data Receiving". 

• There is a time-lapse while collecting data from ten thousand objects using the vRealize Automation/Cloud Automation Services (CAS) adapter.

• Additional price on the second day is incorrect in the cost-based pricing model.

• The resource filter should cover all descendant/children resources if the resource kind filter is set to blank.

Known Issues

The known issues are grouped as follows.

• Installation and Upgrade Issues
• General Issues
• User Interface Issues

Installation and Upgrade Issues

• Incorrect message shown in the administrator user interface after a new node is added
  1. Create a multi-node cluster and provide a custom certificate to be installed using the New Installation wizard.
  2. Add a new node.
  3. After the node addition is complete, a message stating 'Cluster initialization is in progress' is displayed in the Administration Settings page of the vRealize Operations Manager administrator user interface.

  Workaround 1: 

  1. Restart the casa service of the master node.
  2. Install a custom certificate from the administrator user interface one more time.

  Workaround 2:

  1. Create a multi-node cluster.
  2. Install a custom certificate from the administrator user interface.
  3. Add node(s).
• The Take Node(s) Offline wizard appears when you try to bring an offline RC node online

  When you try to bring an RC node back online after having just taken it offline, the Take Node(s) Offline wizard appears when you click the Take Node Offline/Online button, instead of the Take Node(s) Online wizard as expected.

  Workaround: If the node state still displays as Running or the status is still Online after having taken it offline, wait a few moments and then manually refresh the data in the view from the top menu to get the latest state of the node. After the correct state is displayed which is Not Running, the Take Node Offline/Online button will work as expected.

• Installation of a management pack fails on a newly added node

  After you upgrade to vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1, installation of a management pack fails on a newly added node.

  Workaround: Upgrade management packs to their latest version and then add a new node.

• Upgrade to vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1 fails for instances with Wavefront configuration

  If you use vRealize Operations Manager 7.5 and earlier versions with Wavefront configured, you cannot upgrade to vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1 as upgrade fails.

  Workaround: None

• In a pure IPv6 environment, DNS servers are missing from the /etc/resolv.conf file

  DNS servers are missing from the /etc/resolv.conf file when a new node is deployed in a pure IPv6 environment. As a result, the node cannot resolve FQDNs to IP addresses.

  Workaround: With the help of your network administrator, manually set the DNS servers in the /etc/resolv.conf file.

• Upgrade might fail if any of the nodes are running on VMs with US/Pacific-New timezone

  PostgreSQL database systems no longer support the US/Pacific-New timezone, which was just an alias for America/Los_Angeles timezone. If any of the vRealize Operations Manager nodes are running on VMs with US/Pacific-New timezone, upgrade might fail.

  Workaround: Change VM timezones from US/Pacific-New to America/Los_Angeles, and then upgrade.

General Issues

• The End Point Operations Management Agent collector receives no data

  After upgrading to vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1, the End Point Operations Management Agent collector receives no data and displays a relevant status.

  Workaround: For more information, see KB 80139.

• Dashboard time does not work with the Scoreboard widget

  A change in time is not reflected if you click on one of dashboard time options such as 1hr, 24H, or 7D from the Scoreboard widget.

  Workaround: Manually change the widget time intervals for the Scoreboard widget.

• System language settings affects service discovery

  Service discovery might not work if the system language is different from English. For languages different from English, network connection state values might be different from constants defined in standard RFCs.

  Workaround: None

• REST API calls related to application monitoring do not work as expected when a user does not have necessary permissions

  REST API calls related to application monitoring do not report informative messages when a vRealize Operations Manager user does not have the necessary permissions.

  Workaround: None

• The NSX-T adapter settings have to be imported manually

  NSX-T adapter settings are not imported during the import of the VMware Cloud on AWS cloud account from vRealize Automation or the CAS service.

  Workaround: Modify the imported VMware Cloud on AWS cloud account in vRealize Operations Manager and enable the NSX toggle. The NSX-T adapter instance will be added to vRealize Operations Manager with data discovery and collection enabled.

• The Management Pack for AWS does not discover all services

  Discovering and monitoring of specified services using the Management Pack for AWS is not supported in all regions because of an SDK limitation.

  Workaround: None

• Reports fail if the rows in the Table of Contents do not fit in one page

  The Table of Contents in a report do not dynamically change to accommodate all the sections in a report.

  Workaround: If you have a report with more than twelve sections, you can either remove the Table of Contents page from the report or split the report into multiple reports each of which has no more than twelve sections in it.

• Reconfigure the Project Price widget if the vRealize Automation 8.x integration is deactivated and then reactivated

  There is data missing in the Project Price widget of the Cloud Automation Project Price Overview dashboard when you deactivate
  and then reactivate an existing vRealize Automation 8.x integration.

  Workaround: Reconfigure the Project Price widget by completing the following steps:

  1. After you deactivate and then reactivate the vRealize Automation 8.x integration, navigate to Dashboards > vRealize Automation 8.x > Cloud Automation Project Price Overview dashboard.
  2. Edit the Project Price widget.
  3. Navigate to the Input data section.
  4. Select the '+' (Add Object) button and select the CAS World object from vRealize Automation Adapter 8.x > CAS World.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Navigate to the Output data in the same widget configuration mode. Search for and select the CAS Project Price View object from the list.
  7. Save the widget.
• HTTP Post Adapter is deprecated in vRealize Operations Manager 7.0 and above

  Re-enabling the HTTP Post Adapter can open vRealize Operations Manager to security flaws.

  Workaround: Complete the steps in KB 60328.

• Despite deleting ucp-adapter instance certificates, users can run actions

  If users delete ucp-adapter instance certificates, they can still run actions such as, start and stop an agent, configure remote checks, and so on.

  Workaround: None

• The /api/applications/agents/services/{taskId}/status API does not verify the actual results of the custom script

  The /api/applications/agents/services/{taskId}/status API returns the status of the task and does not check the final actual result only for installing/uninstalling of custom scripts. For the remaining cases (installing/uninstalling of services and remote checks), it returns the actual result.

  Workaround: Wait for 2-3 collection cycles for the custom script object to start collecting data.

• While monitoring applications, you cannot activate a plugin with the same fields till the plugin configuration is deleted

  An error message is displayed in the user interface of vRealize Operations Manager that states the following: 'Failed to update resource: Resource with same key already exists'.

  Workaround: Manually delete the existing plugin configuration and then continue with the activation of the plugin. If the problem persists, delete the corresponding resource from the inventory.

• The compliance score for a user with limited object visibility is the same as for a user with complete object visibility

  The compliance score is calculated for objects that are not visible (not assigned) to the current user.

  Workaround: Complete the following steps:

  1. Create a custom group with objects visible (assigned) to the user.
  2. For that group, apply a policy in which the needed set of compliance alert definitions is enabled.
     If that set is enabled only in one active policy (the one that is applied to the custom group), the compliance benchmark based on those alert definitions will display the correct score.

   

• Upgrade from vRealize Operations Manager 7.5 to 8.1.1 results in a change in the license cost driver

  When you upgrade from vRealize Operations Manager 7.5 to 8.1.1, there is a change in the license cost driver between the Summary page and the License Cost Driver page.

  Workaround: You can set the cost with the old value, which is $365, in the License Cost Driver page.

• Additional cost displayed is zero even though there is a direct cost associated with the VM

  If the vCenter Server configured with vRealize Automation 8.x was already monitored by vRealize Operations Manager and costs were computed, the cost is displayed as zero.

  Workaround: Cost will match the price from the next month when both get a fresh month-to-date start.

• Collection for the Management Pack for Microsoft Azure fails when the network connection times out

  When the Management Pack for Microsoft Azure sends a request to the Azure portal and the portal takes a longer time to read the request than the Azure SDK timeout value, collection for the adapter instance fails. Collection resumes when the network timeout issue is resolved or the Azure portal can read the request.

  Workaround: None

• Change in the way Active Directory authentication source handles user names

  Logging in to vRealize Operations Manager with a short name will be successful only if the user name's domain suffix matches the domain name specified in the Base DN option. Otherwise, the full user name with the domain suffix is required during login. For more information, see KB 68131.

  Workaround: To authenticate using short name, configure the Active Directory authentication source to use
  samAccountName for Common Name. You must re-import the Active Directory users and groups after setting the Common Name to samAccountName.

• Objects such as images and icons related to the Management Pack for SDDC Health, Management Pack for OpenStack, and Management Pack for SRM are not displayed 

  After you upgrade vRealize Operations Manager, if you scale a vRealize Operations Manager cluster with the Management Pack for OpenStack 5.0, or Management Pack for SRM 8.1, or Management Pack for SDDC Health 5.0 installed and add another vRealize Operations node, some objects such as images and icons related to the management packs are missing.

  Workaround: Users with an instance of the Management Pack for OpenStack, or Management Pack for SRM, or Management Pack for SDDC Health must uninstall the management packs, before upgrading vRealize Operations Manager.

• Cost computation is not supported for a VMware Cloud vCenter Server end point in vRealize Operations Manager 8.1.1

  In vRealize Operations Manager 8.1,1, when you add a VMware Cloud vCenter Server end point and specify the cloud type as VMware Cloud on AWS, cost is not computed for the VMware Cloud vCenter Server end point, because the cost model is different from on-premises vCenter Servers.

  Workaround: The cost of infrastructure coming from VMware Cloud on AWS can be managed using the vRealize Operations Manager management
  pack for VMware Cloud on AWS.

• Interactions in a distribution type of view, work only for the Current type of transformation

  When you create a distribution type of view and select a transformation type that is not Current, the list view is not displayed.

  Workaround: Change the selected metric transformation to Current to see the list view. You can add the same metric as an additional
  column with a relevant transformation (for example, maximum) and view the result of the transformation in the list view.

• Alerts from the vSAN adapter that correspond to vSAN health check tests are not canceled if the test is removed from the vSAN Health Service.

  vRealize Operations Manager cannot detect and cancel deleted alerts.

  Workaround: Manually cancel the alert from the user interface of vRealize Operations Manager.

• When using Internet Explorer 11 to access the Log Insight tab pages and dashboards, the data is blocked

  When using Internet Explorer 11 to access the Log Insight tab pages and dashboards, data is blocked, and the page remains blank.

  Workaround: Use the Firefox or Chrome browser.

• Generated reports may be blank

  If you log in to vRealize Operations Manager with vCenter Server credentials and generate a report, the generated report is always blank.

  Workaround: None

User Interface Issues

• The dashboard link cannot be opened when you use Internet Explorer on Windows 7

  When you try to open a dashboard that is a shared URL, the page does not open.

  Workaround: You must not use Internet Explorer with Windows 7. Open the link using other browsers.

• The Last Year option in the date picker is not intuitive

  The Last Year option in the date picker indicates that the time range starts from the end of the previous month and goes back a year. It does not indicate a time range that spans one year from the current date or the whole previous year.

  Workaround: None

• The filter menus in the Policies workspace step called Collect Metrics and Properties, do not work correctly

  When you deselect an option from the State, KPI, or DT drop-down menus, the filter hides all attributes irrespective of their settings.

  Workaround: Save and reopen the policy.

• A PDF report file might not include all data from a widget that has a scrollbar

  When you generate a report that contains a custom dashboard with a widget that has a scrollbar, the downloaded PDF file might not include all the data in the widget.

  Workaround: Increase the height of the widget in the dashboard to fit all the data.