VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.8 Release Notes

vSphere Replication 8.8 \| 21 SEP 2023 \| Build 22436165 VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.8 \| 21 SEP 2023 \| Build 22458997 Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

vSphere Replication 8.8 | 21 SEP 2023 | Build 22436165

VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.8 | 21 SEP 2023 | Build 22458997

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's New

The VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.8 release provides support for VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator 8.12.2.

Introduction to the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.8

The VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication allows VMware administrators to simplify the management of their vSphere Replication infrastructure by leveraging the robust workflow automation platform of VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator. The VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication extends automation capabilities for certain vSphere Replication operations by including them in VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator workflows.

The plug-in also delivers pre-built out-of-the-box building blocks and complete workflows that cover certain existing vSphere Replication actions.

The VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.8 release runs with the latest version of VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator. For more information on interoperability with earlier or later releases of VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator, see the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices.

You can download the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.8 from the download page.

For information about creating workflows by using VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator, see the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator documentation.

For more information on the supported workflows, see the Featured Workflows section.

For more information on the compatibility between the VMware VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication and VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Appliance, see the compatibility matrix.

Installation

The VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication software requires VMware vRealize Orchestrator 8.12.2, and vSphere Replication 8.8. For information on installing VMware Aria Automation Orchestratorr, see the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator documentation. For information on installing vSphere Replication 8.8, see Installing and Setting Up vSphere Replication in the VMware vSphere Replication documentation.

The VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication software is distributed as a VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator application file. Install and configure the plug-in by using the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator configuration interface.

After you install the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication, the plug-in automatically discovers the vSphere Replication instances on all vCenter Servers that are currently registered.

After you install the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication, you find the vSphere Replication workflows in the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator UI:

Go to Library > Workflows
Search for the workflow by name or switch to tree view from the top right icon. In tree view you can find the workflows under Library > vSphere Replication folder.

Before you can run vSphere Replication workflows, which interact with remote sites, you must register the remote site, by running the corresponding workflow from Library > vSphere Replication > Remote Site Management > Register VC Site.

Note: The VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator user, which is used to register the vCenter Server sites in VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator must have the privilege Sessions.ValidateSession and the VRM Administrator role (or all the privileges of the VRM Administor role). The user must have the privileges on all vCenter Server instances in the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator inventory, otherwise the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication does not populate the vSphere Replication inventory objects in VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator.

Even if you want to configure replication to the same site, you must register it by selecting self pair in the Site field. Then, you must log in to the remote site by running the Login to VC Site workflow. You must run this workflow only once per VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator user.

Note:VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator communicates with the vSphere Replication appliance over port 8043.

Featured Workflows

The VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator plug-in provides out-of-the-box workflows to help customers automate vSphere Replication operations. Below are some of the implemented workflows.

Remote Site Management workflows:
- Log in to a vCenter Server site
Configure Replication workflows:
- Reconfigure Replication
Pause Replication workflows
Resume Replication workflows
Stop Replication workflows
Replication Details Workflows
- Check Replication Status
- Get Replication Configuration
- Get Replication List

Caveats and Limitations

The VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.8 supports vRealize Orchestrator 8.10 and 8.11 with certain limitations. For more information, see the Known Issues from Previous Releases section.

Known Issues

You cannot directly upgrade from VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication version 8.7 to version 8.8

When you try to upgrade the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication from version 8.7 to 8.8 from the configuration page of VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator 8.13.1, the upgrade fails.

Workaround 1: Remove VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication version 8.7 and then install version 8.8.

Workaround 2: Upgrade VMware Aria Orchestrator to version 8.14.1.

Known Issues from Previous Releases

A NullPointerException appears in the reconfigure replication workflow

In some cases, a NullPointerException appears in the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator user interface when you want to reconfigure replications with multiple disks and all disks are excluded from the replication. As a result, the datastores are not loaded.

Workaround: On the Disks page, select a storage profile from the drop-down menu. The datastores are loaded and you can submit the workflow.
You cannot select the same options twice for Disk format per disk, Storage profile per disk or Target datastore per disk, when running the Configure Replication or Reconfigure Replication workflows with the Per disk configuration option activated

When you run the Configure Replication or Reconfigure Replication workflows with the Per disk configuration option activated and you try to select options for the Disk format per disk, Storage profile per disk and Target datastore per disk arrays, you cannot select the same options twice and you get an error message.

Workaround 1: Use the Configure Replication or Reconfigure Replication workflows with the Per disk configuration options deactivated.

Workaround 2: Use the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator scripting objects.
When you attempt to register a new vCenter Server instance, you receive an error in the vCenter Server plug-in

When you attempt to register a new vCenter Server instance, the operation fails because of a vmodl mismatch error: (unusable: (vmodl.fault.InvalidType) { faultCause = null, faultMessage = null, argument = ImageLibraryManager }). As a result, you are blocked from using the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator plug-in for vSphere Replication 8.7 as it depends on the vCenter Server registration from the vCenter plug-in. The issue is present with the out-of-the-box vCenter Server plug-in that comes with vRealize Orchestrator versions 8.10.1, 8.10.2, 8.11, 8.11.1, and 8.11.2.

Workaround: Download and install the latest vCenter Server plug-in from the marketplace.
The vSphere Replication site is not shown in the inventory view when a new vCenter instance has been added to VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator.

Workaround: Restart the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Server service.
Executing any of the unregister workflows from Library > vSphere Replication > Remote Site Management does not terminate the already established connection to the target site.

Workaround: Restart the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator Server service.
When registering vCloud Air as a Standalone Org or a Remote Cloud Site and "Ignore certificate warnings" is set to "No", the following warnings appear

1) Untrusted certificate, with certificate info:

Validity : [From : Apr 23, 2013 To : Apr 27, 2016]Organizational Unit :Public key : RSAFingerprint (MD5) : 80 C1 77 2F 78 16 01 EB 9A 4B 88 E5 A3 E3 C0 29Organization : VMware, Inc.Common Name (6 characters min) : *.vchs.vmware.comCountry : USSerial Number : 1B C3 C0 84Alternative names :[2, [2]*.vchs.vmware.com][2, [2]vchs.vmware.com]

2) Wrong site - saying that the certificate is issued to *.vchs.vmware.com

Workaround: Verify that the fingerprint is the same as the above, the validity is correct and continue with importing the certificate despite the warnings.
You might see an error in the vSphere Replication inventory of the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator after replacing a vSphere Replication management server certificate at the local site of a pair

If for some reason you change the certificate of the vSphere Replication management server at the local site of a replication pair, you might not be able to see the pair in the vSphere Replication inventory of the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator. You see an error similar to:

\Unable to execute 'fetchRelation' for type : Site : com.vmware.vim.vmomi.client.exception.SslException: com.vmware.vim.vmomi.core.exception.CertificateValidationException: Server certificate chain is not trusted and thumbprint doesn't match

Stale certificates in the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator inventory cause the issue.
Workaround:
1. Restart the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator server:
  1. Launch a console to the virtual machine on which the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator server is installed.
  2. Log in to the console as root.
  3. Run the command service vco-server restart to restart the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator server.
2. Restart the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator client. Wait for the validation to complete. You can monitor validation progress at this url pattern: https://{your VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator server address}:8283/vco-controlcenter/config/#/control-app/validate
3. In case the vSphere Replication management server is in a pair with another vSphere Replication management server, you must reconnect the pair.
4. In the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator inventory, unregister the old server entries and register the new ones.