Aria Operations 8.14: The Latest Enhancements and Changes
The latest release of VMware Aria Operations, version 8.14, was released on 19 October 2023 (5 days ago) with new features, capabilities, and important changes to improve your experience with the platform. I just updated my home lab to the latest version of Aria Operations and thought to write some of the noteworthy updates in this release.
Transition to Cloud Proxies
In Aria Operations 8.14, one of the most important transformations involves shifting from Remote Collectors to Cloud Proxies for data collection. Cloud Proxies have been introduced as a robust, forward-looking solution, with exclusive access to all future features. This version marks the final chapter for Remote Collector support, making it imperative to replace all existing Remote Collectors with Cloud Proxies. The significance of this transition cannot be overstated, and here are the recommended steps to ensure a smooth transition:
- Collector Groups: If you’re using a collector group, add new cloud proxies and remove Remote Collectors from the group.
- Create Collector Groups: For those not already using a collector group, create one and deploy cloud proxies into it. Reassign all adapter instances from Remote Collectors to the collector groups and remove Remote Collectors.
In the next on-premises release, upgrades will not be allowed if there are Remote Collectors in use
Upgrade to Photon OS v4.0
VMware Aria Operations and Cloud Proxy appliances have been upgraded to Photon OS v4.0, ensuring the latest security and performance enhancements.
Enriched Launchpad
This release introduces an exciting new feature designed to enhance your knowledge about a specific topic. When you click the Learn More option on select card within the Launchpad, it provides a video explanation of that feature.
vSAN Oversubscription Metrics
Two new metrics, ‘vSAN Oversubscription Capacity‘ and ‘vSAN Oversubscription Ratio,’ have been added for the vSAN Cluster object, providing better insights into your vSAN environment.
The oversubscription metrics are applicable only for the vSAN OSA clusters.
Green Score for Physical Data Centers
This release brings the ability to add and edit physical data centers at the organizational level. You can define a green score for each data center based on various metrics, including power source, virtualization ratio, and hardware age to identify which data center needs optimization and also save cost and reduce carbon emissions.
Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP)
CEIP is now turned on by default in this release (even if you upgrade and in the last version it was tuned off), providing valuable data to enhance your VMware Aria Operations experience, if you want, you can turn it off on the Global Settings page.
Alerts Enhancement
New features in alert notifications include alert notification forensics and notification heartbeat, enabling you to simulate alerts and resend active alerts to specific endpoints.
Cloud Proxy Command Line Interface
The cloud proxy CLI is now more robust, offering connectivity checks to ensure the reliability of your environment.
Native Content Cleanup
This release removes deprecated dashboards, views, and VOA reports to streamline your user experience.
Compliance Pack Upgrades
The vSphere Compliance Pack and CIS Compliance Pack have been updated to support the latest benchmarks. Additionally, a new VMware Cloud Foundation Compliance Pack is introduced.
Native Management Packs
New native dashboards are available for the NSX Management Pack, making it easier to monitor your NSX environment.
VMware Aria Operations for Logs Management Pack
Integration with Active Directory and Workspace One Access credentials, along with local accounts, is now possible.
Microsoft Azure Government Support
This release introduces support for Azure Government subscriptions, offering more flexibility in managing your subscriptions.
Enhanced Metric Search
The Troubleshooting Workbench now offers advanced metric search capabilities, making it easier to find the information you need.
I tried to highlight the most important features released in VMware Aria Operations 8.14. For more information and details check the release note.
Hope this is informative for you and look forward to seeing you in upcoming posts!
