Using multiple browser tabs causing erratic behavior in Aria Automation 8.x

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

• Having two or more organizations configured in Aria Automation 8.x can occasionally lead to configuration elements like Names of Cloud Proxies, Projects and others from one organization show up incorrectly in the other when using multiple browser tabs.
• This can lead to unintended operations.

Cause

The VMware Aria Automation 8.x user interface is architected as a Single Page Application (SPA) that relies heavily on client-side state management. The application utilizes the browser's Session Storage and Local Storage to maintain the user's active context (including Organization IDs, Project IDs, and active Request Forms).

By design, modern web browsers share this storage scope across all tabs and windows within the same browser session. Consequently, operating multiple tabs simultaneously creates a race condition where the shared state is overwritten by the most recently active tab. This results in "context bleeding," where an action initiated in one tab consumes the state variables (such as a deployment target or authorization token) set by the adjacent tab.

Resolution

 

• Browser Profiles (Best for Chrome/Edge): Create distinct browser profiles (e.g., "Work - Dev", "Work - Prod"). Each profile has a completely separate file system for cookies and storage.

• Firefox Multi-Account Containers: Broadcom specifically lists this as a workaround in their KBs. This extension isolates cookies and session data per tab/container, allowing you to have multiple vRA 8.x sessions (even with different credentials) side-by-side in the same window.

• Incognito/Private Windows: This works for a single secondary session but is not scalable for heavy multitasking.

 

Additional Information