Decommissioning VMware Aria Automation: frequently asked questions and procedures

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

You are preparing to shut down and decommission your VMware Aria Automation instance and have questions regarding the impact of doing so. Specifically, you are looking for clarification on how this affects the operation and resource management of existing virtual machines (VMs), lease policies, and the correct sequence of steps to fully remove the environment to prevent synchronization errors.

Environment

 

• VMware Aria Automation

• VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle

• VMware vCenter Server

 

Cause

You require a validated procedure to safely decommission VMware Aria Automation and clarification on how the removal impacts currently managed workloads and infrastructure.

Resolution

Review the following frequently asked questions and the step-by-step decommissioning procedure to safely remove your instance.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Will existing VMs still operate inside of vCenter? Yes. Shutting down the VMware Aria Automation instance will not impact the execution of existing virtual machines. Your ESXi hosts and vCenter Server will continue to run the workloads without interruption.

• Can you perform resource adjustments for a managed VM through the vCenter console? Yes. Resource adjustments, such as CPU, RAM, or disk expansions, for previously managed VMs can be performed directly through your vCenter Server console.

• Will there be any issues with leased VMs once the appliance is decommissioned? No. Your VMs will not be affected by the VMware Aria Automation lease policy once the instance has been decommissioned.

Decommissioning Procedure:

Decommissioning VMware Aria Automation requires infrastructure cleanup beyond simply deleting or powering off the virtual appliances. Doing so directly in vCenter without first removing them from VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle will result in continuous inventory synchronization errors and health check failures within the Lifecycle Manager.

Execute the following sequence to fully remove the environment:

1. Delete from VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle: Log in to VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle, navigate to Environments, select the VMware Aria Automation environment tile, and click Delete Environment. Select the Delete related virtual machines from vCenter checkbox to automatically destroy the VMware Aria Automation virtual appliances during the removal process.

2. Remove Load Balancer Configurations: If deployed in a highly available, clustered architecture, remove the VMware Aria Automation Virtual IP (VIP), server pools, and health monitors from your associated load balancer.

3. Clean Up DNS and IPAM: Remove the forward (A) and reverse (PTR) DNS records for all VMware Aria Automation nodes and the cluster VIP. Reclaim the corresponding IP addresses in your IPAM solution.

4. Remove Service Accounts: Disable and remove any dedicated Active Directory service accounts used exclusively by VMware Aria Automation for integrations.

5. Clean Up vCenter Artifacts: Remove vCenter custom attributes, tags, and folders that were automatically generated by VMware Aria Automation for workload placement and organization.

6. Remove Cross-Product Integrations: If VMware Aria Automation was integrated with VMware Aria Operations, VMware Aria Operations for Networks, or NSX, remove the configured endpoints and management packs from those respective solutions.

Additional Information

Note: Do not decommission VMware Identity Manager if it is shared with other active VMware Aria Suite products.