High LDAP Server Load Caused by VMware Aria Operations for Networks and VMware Aria Operations Polling NSX

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• VMware NSX experiences performance impacts due to a high load generated on the configured LDAP server.
• VMware Aria Operations for Networks (formerly VMware vRealize Network Insight or vRNI) and VMware Aria Operations (formerly VMware vRealize Operations or vROps) are constantly polling NSX for statistics using an LDAP-based user account.
• This behavior can overwhelm the LDAP directory service due to continuous authentication verification requests.

Environment

VMware NSX

VMware Aria Operations for Networks (formerly VMware vRealize Network Insight or vRNI)

VMware Aria Operations (formerly VMware vRealize Operations or vROps)

Cause

External analytics solutions (such as, VMware Aria Operations for Networks  and VMware Aria Operations) utilizing an LDAP-based service account for continuous metrics and API polling cause constant authentication evaluations, overloading the LDAP directory.

Resolution

This is a condition that may occur in a VMware NSX environment.

Workaround:

1. Access the data collection and endpoint configurations within Aria Operations for Networks and Aria Operations.
2. Transition the NSX data sources to authenticate using a local user account (e.g., the local admin user or a dedicated local service account configured with the requisite read permissions) instead of an LDAP-integrated user account or Principal Identity certificate based authentication.
3. Save the configurations to ensure frequent API and metric polling bypasses the remote LDAP server entirely.