Additional disks remain "Detached" when deploying templates from Content Library to a Datastore Cluster.

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

When initiating a virtual machine deployment in VMware Aria Automation, the process may appear to complete successfully; however, any additional disks requested during the initial provisioning (Day 0) fail to attach to the virtual machine.

Symptoms:

• The virtual machine deploys successfully.

• The additional disk(s) appear in the Aria Automation UI with a status of Deployed, but are listed as DETACHED.

• In vCenter, the "Reconfigure - Add Disk" task is never initiated.

• In some versions, the error "This resource no longer exists in the deployment" may be observed in the request details.

 

Environment

• Product: VMware Aria Automation 8.x (formerly vRA)

• Version: 8.18.1.37000 (U2) and lower

• Template Source: vCenter Content Library

Cause

A software defect has been identified that prevents secondary disks from being attached when a specific set of conditions are met:

1. The machine is deployed from a template residing in a vCenter Content Library.

2. The deployment includes additional disks requested at Day 0.

3. The storage profile targets a Datastore Cluster (Storage DRS).

Note: Initial reports suggested an association with Windows 11 and vTPM; however, further investigation has confirmed that vTPM is not a factor in this failure. The issue is strictly related to the interaction between Content Library deployments and Datastore Clusters.

Resolution

A formal resolution is planned for a future maintenance release of Aria Automation 8.18.x and will be natively addressed in VMware Cloud Foundation Automation (VCFA) 9.x.

Workaround

To resolve this issue immediately, modify the storage placement logic to target individual datastores rather than a cluster:

1. Tag Datastores: Assign a specific capability tag to the individual datastores intended for use.

2. Update Storage Profile: Create or modify a Storage Profile to include these specific tagged datastores (ensuring the Datastore Cluster is not the target).

3. Update Cloud Template: In the Cloud Template (Blueprint), add a storage constraint tag to the additional disk(s) section that matches the tags set in step 1.

This ensures that Aria Automation maps the disk directly to a specific datastore, bypassing the handshake logic error associated with Datastore Clusters.