Local vCenter DRS rules are automatically disabled when host licensing tags are applied in Aria Operations

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

Aria Operations Workload Placement (WLP) may automatically disable user-defined vCenter DRS affinity rules. This behavior typically occurs when host-level Business Intent policies are active. Even when virtual machines within the DRS affinity group are not tagged, the WLP engine may identify the associated host group as "overlapping" or "dirty" to prevent migration loops. Consequently, the ClusterRulesManager service dispatches a ReconfigureComputeResource_Task to vCenter, which disables the local DRS rule.

Environment

• VMware Aria Operations 8.18.6

Cause

The behavior is by design within the WLP engine's conflict-avoidance logic. When a host is assigned a licensing tag monitored by Business Intent, it becomes an active member of a host group managed by the WLP policy. If this host is part of an existing local vCenter DRS rule's host group, the WLP engine marks the entire DRS rule as overlapping and systematically disables it to ensure the integrity of the automated placement boundary.

Resolution

To prevent Aria Operations from disabling local DRS rules in specific clusters while maintaining Business Intent policies elsewhere, exclude the affected clusters from the Business Intent policy scope:

1. In the vSphere Client, create a dedicated tag category and tag (e.g., WLP_Exclude:True).
2. Assign the new tag to the cluster(s) where DRS rules should remain enabled and untouched by Aria Operations.
3. Log in to the VMware Aria Operations UI.
4. Navigate to Capacity > Workload Placement (or Optimize > Workload Placement).
5. Select the relevant datacenter or custom datacenter from the top row.
6. Click Edit in the Business Intent card.
7. In the Edit Business Intent dialog box, select the Exclusion tab.
8. Select the Clusters radio button.
9. Specify the vCenter Server tag category and tag name created in Step 1.
10. Click Save to preserve the configuration.

The predictive placement engine will now bypass the excluded cluster during optimization runs, preventing the ClusterRulesManager from evaluating host group memberships or dispatching cluster reconfiguration tasks to the object.

Additional Information

• For more information on configuring Workload Placement and Business Intent exclusions, see Configuring Workload Optimization  and Business Intent Workspace (TechDocs).
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