VMware Aria Automation update subscription workflows are triggered out of order when using ignoreChanges

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

When performing a deployment update for a resource configured with ignoreChanges: true, the associated vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) subscription workflows may be triggered out of order or concurrently.

In the VMware Aria Automation UI, the Plan page during the deployment update will display "No change." Because the update is not considered "concrete," the system does not generate standard resource tasks, leading to the following behavior:

• Aria Automation publishes both pre-deployment update and post-deployment update events concurrently.

• vRO workflows triggered by these events run simultaneously rather than sequentially.

 

For example, we request a deployment which contains one VM and one disk attached to the VM by using below cloud template. In which the disk resource has property 

formatVersion: 1
inputs:
  diskSize:
    type: integer
    title: Additional Disks
    default: 1
resources:
  Cloud_vSphere_Machine_1:
    type: Cloud.vSphere.Machine
    ignoreChanges: true
    properties:
      name: machine0
      image: ubuntu
      cpuCount: 1
      totalMemoryMB: 2048
      attachedDisks:
        - source: ${resource.DataDisks.id}
  DataDisks:
    type: Cloud.vSphere.Disk
    ignoreChanges: true
    properties:
      capacityGb: ${input.diskSize}
      name: disk1

Environment

VMware Aria Automation: 8.x

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF): 9.0, 9.0.1, 9.1, 9.1.1

Cause

When a deployment update results in "No change" (non-concrete update), there are no resource tasks created to sequence the events. Consequently, the pre-update and post-update events are published to the event bus at the same time, leading to concurrent execution of subscription workflows.

Resolution

This issue is tentatively planned to be fixed in a future release Aria Automation Patch 5.

Workaround

To ensure workflows are triggered in the correct order, you must disable the ignoreChanges property:

Open the Cloud Template associated with the deployment.

Locate the resource (e.g., Cloud.vSphere.Disk) causing the issue.

Set the property ignoreChanges to false.

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Additional Information