Aria Operations (formerly vRealize Operations) is VMware’s operations management software tool that provides VMware customers the ability to maintain and tune their virtual application infrastructure with the aid of AI and machine learning. It connects to the vCenter Server and collects metrics, events, configurations, and logs about the vSAN clusters and virtual workloads running on them. Aria Operations also understands the topology and object relationships of the virtual application infrastructure. With all these features, it can drive intelligent remediation, ensuring configuration compliance, monitoring capacity and cost optimization, and maintaining performance optimization. It is an outcome-based tool designed to self-drive according to user-defined intents powered by its AI/ML engine.
The VxRail Management Pack is an additional free-of-charge software pack that can be installed onto Aria Operations to provide VxRail cluster awareness. Without this Management Pack, Aria Operations can still detect vSAN clusters but cannot discern that they are VxRail clusters. The Management Pack consists of an adapter that collects distinct VxRail events, analytics logic specific to VxRail, and custom dashboards. The VxRail events are translated into VxRail alerts on Aria Operations so that users have helpful information to understand health issues along with the recommended course of resolution. Custom dashboards offer users views that are specific to VxRail so they can troubleshoot issues and use existing Aria Operations capabilities in the context of VxRail clusters.
The VxRail Management Pack is not for every VxRail user because it requires an Aria Operations Advanced or Enterprise license. For enterprise customers or customers who have already invested in the VMware Aria Operations suite, the VxRail Management Pack can be an easy add-on to help manage their VxRail clusters.
