System Virtual Machines Are Not Automatically Excluded From License Usage in VMware Aria Operations

Products

• VMware Aria Suite

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• VMware Aria Operations includes system virtual machines in license usage.  If the usage of virtual machine licenses is exceeded, system virtual machines might consume licenses while customer virtual machines may appear unlicensed.

Environment

VMware Aria Operations 8.18.x

Cause

vSphere Cluster services and Workload Management features, as well as the vSAN File Share feature, introduced system virtual machines which VMware Aria Operations does not exclude from license usage.
As a result, if the usage of virtual machine licenses is exceeded, system virtual machines might consume licenses while customer virtual machines may appear unlicensed.

Notes:

• vSphere Workload Management was introduced in vSphere version 7.0
• vSAN File Share was introduced in vSphere 7.0 / ESXi 7.0
• vSphere Cluster Services was introduced in vSphere 7.0 Update 1.

Resolution

System virtual machines can be excluded from the license group manually by editing the license group membership.

1. Log in to VMware Aria Operations UI as an administrative user.
2. Navigate to Subscriptions > Legacy Licenses > License Groups.
3. Click the vertical ellipsis next to the problematic License group and click Edit.
4. Select the license key and click Next.
5. At the bottom of the screen, in the Object to always exclude section, add the system virtual machines to the excluded group.
6. Click Next then Finish.
7. Back on the License Keys tab, click the ellipsis and then click Refresh License Usage.