Duplicate hostnames generated for different virtual machines in VMware Aria Automation 8.18.x

Products

• VCF Automation

Issue/Introduction

In VMware Aria Automation 8.18.x, you may encounter an issue where two different virtual machines are assigned the same hostname. This issue occurs randomly within the same project and typically results in deployment failures or IP/DNS conflicts when the second VM attempts to join the network.

Environment

VMware Aria Automation

Cause

This issue is caused by a limitation in the Legacy Custom Naming engine which can occasionally generate duplicate strings when multiple deployments are triggered simultaneously or when the naming template does not include enough unique identifiers. This issue can also occur if time drift (NTP) exists between a 3-node Aria Automation cluster.

Resolution

The permanent fix for this behavior is to migrate to the New Custom Naming feature introduced in version 8.18.

1. Log in to VMware Aria Automation.
2. Navigate to Infrastructure > Administration > Custom Names.
3. Enable and configure the New Custom Naming engine.

Note: It is strongly recommended to validate these naming templates in a test environment first, as the configuration logic differs from the legacy version.

If you cannot migrate to New Custom Naming immediately, update your existing naming template to include unique variables:

• Add ${project.name} if the collisions are occurring across different projects.

 

Additional Information

Additional Information

For users upgrading from 8.x to 9.x (Soft Tenancy), your existing custom naming configuration will remain the same.

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