Rule-Based Application Discovery does not update group membership dynamically in Aria Operations

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

• In Aria Operations, rule-based application discovery in Operations > Configurations, fails to dynamically update its membership when new VMs are tagged. 

• This causes an inaccurate count of VMs within the application group, leading to incomplete data in dashboards and other reports.

Environment

• Aria Operations 8.18.x

Cause

• The "Application Discovery: Rule Based" feature has a bug that prevents it from automatically detecting and including new VMs that are tagged after the rule has been created. The feature does not actively poll for new tag assignments after its initial setup.

Resolution

• This will be addressed in the upcoming Aria Operations 8.18.4 Hot Fix.

There are two recommended workarounds to ensure all tagged VMs are included in the application group:

• Workaround 1: Recreate the Application Definition under Operations > Configurations > Application Discovery: Rule-Based to refresh VM membership.

• Workaround 2: Use Custom Groups to dynamically update membership every 20 minutes:

  1. Go to Operations > Configuration > Custom Groups and click Add.

  2. Provide a name and check Keep group membership up to date.

  3. Define membership criteria using the required Tag Category/values and save.

  4. Edit the Application Definition and select the created Custom Group as the Object Name.

  5. Assign the Application Definition to the Custom Group under Operations > Applications > Manage Applications.