Configuration and Permission Requirements for Aria Operations Snapshot Deletion Automation Jobs

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

• An Automation Job configured in Aria Operations to delete snapshots (e.g., older than 7 days) fails to execute.
• Email alerts are triggered reporting a failure to delete the queried snapshots.
• In vCenter, the task fails with the error: RuntimeFault exception, message: [Permission to perform this operation was denied.]
• In Aria Operations under Administration > Control Panel > Recent Tasks, the status shows as Failed.

Environment

• VMware Aria Operations 8.x
• VMware vCenter Server 7.x / 8.x

Cause

Insufficient permissioned configured for Action User in vCenter.  The following Error can be seen from Administration > Control Panel > Recent Tasks.

RuntimeFault exception, message:[Permission to perform this operation was denied.]

Resolution

When configuring the job in Automation Central, ensure the snapshot age is set to 7 days or older.

• Note: Aria Operations enforces a hard-coded minimum threshold of 7 days. Values lower than this (e.g., 3 days) are not supported by the platform and cannot be bypassed via standard configuration.

1. Configure vCenter Permissions for the Action User

Aria Operations uses two distinct credentials for vCenter: the Collector User (read-only) and the Action User (performs tasks). The Action User must have the following permissions defined in vCenter:

• Virtual Machine > Snapshot Management > Create Snapshot
• Virtual Machine > Snapshot Management > Remove Snapshot
  
  
  

Validation: Ensure the correct credential is mapped to the "Action User" field within the vCenter Adapter settings in Aria Operations.

2. Create the Automation Job

1. Navigate to Operations > Automation Central.
2. Click Add Job and select Reclaim.
3. Under Action Configuration, select Delete old snapshots.
4. Define the Scope (vCenter, Cluster, or Datacenter) and set the Schedule.

3. Troubleshooting "Idle" VM Exclusions

If snapshots are not being deleted for specific VMs despite correct permissions:

1. Check if the VM is flagged as "Reclaimable Idle" in the Reclaim dashbord.
2. To include these VMs, navigate to Administration > Global Settings > Reclamation.
3. Adjust the VM Idleness Criteria (e.g., reduce the CPU threshold from 100 MHz to a lower value) to ensure the VM is correctly evaluated by the automation engine.

4. Diagnostic Logs

If the job continues to fail, review the following logs for specific API error codes:

• Aria Operations: /storage/log/vcops/log/suite-api.log
• vCenter: vpxd.log or the Events tab for the specific VM to identify if a third-party lock (e.g., backup software) is preventing snapshot removal.