Optimization and Visibility of First-Class Disks (FCD) in "Aria Automation / VCF Automation"

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

The current implementation of First-Class Disks (FCDs) has several limitations that affect storage administration, visibility, and automation workflows. These gaps introduce operational complexity and reduce transparency across the disk lifecycle. The key challenges fall into the following areas:

• FCDs do not support datastore clusters, Storage DRS (SDRS), or tag-based placement, limiting flexibility in storage provisioning and automated placement decisions.
• FCDs are difficult to identify within vCenter due to missing folder references and disk names, lack of disk size visibility in the UI, and the absence of disk-level association with consuming virtual machines.
• Promoting standard disks to FCDs is supported only through APIs, with no corresponding UI task visibility.
• Additionally, disks are not automatically moved to the fcd folder, and migrations do not support OS-level partition handling or updates to project-level constraint tags.

Environment

Aria Automation 8.18.x

VCF Automation 9.x 

Resolution

Broadcom is aware of the limitations regarding First-Class Disk (FCD) placement, visibility, and lifecycle management within the current versions of vRealize Automation (vRA) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).

This behavior is not a defect but a known functional limitation of the current product architecture. To address these requirements, official feature requests have been filed and are currently under active consideration by our Product Management team.