Data collection will be stopped for existing VMware SD-WAN data sources and the data source will remain disabled. 

VMware SD-WAN will not be supported as a data source and all associated metrics and flows will be deleted as per the retention period.

Enhanced auto layout capability to automatically adjust the layout based on network map scopes that you select.

Choose from a range of scoping capabilities – including scope by entities or groups.

Create network map scopes easily by selecting groups. 

Create all types of scope in the network map via API request calls.

VMware Aria Operations for Networks now supports vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus License Keys generated for VMware Cloud Foundation. Instead of using different license keys, you can use vSphere keys to entitle VMware Aria Operations for Networks. You can apply these license keys to VMware vCenter, and VMware Aria Operations for Networks automatically fetches the entitlement after you add vCenter as a data source. 

To support the new vSphere license keys, a default Evaluation Mode is added. VMware Aria Operations for Networks always boots up in the Evaluation Mode. You do need an evaluation key to start the Evaluation Mode, and you can use VMware Aria Operations for Networks in evaluation mode for 60 days.

Support for older licenses will continue. However, if entitled with a vSphere License Key via the vCenter, older licenses become irrelevant.

Online upgrade feature will be deprecated in a future release.

Capabilities of VMware Aria Operations for Networks Enterprise are available with a purchase of VMWare Cloud Foundation. Purchasing VMware Aria Operations for Networks as a standalone license will no longer be available. New VMware Aria Operations for Networks license purchases of the following types will not be available: Perpetual, Support & Subscription (SnS), Universal, SaaS/hosted and subscription, as well as all other editions, suites, and pricing metrics. For more details, see this post.

Admin users can now create and store up to 10 personalized network map scopes, enhancing the capacity to troubleshoot effectively and manage large network infrastructures.

In Network Map Scope, you can choose from a range of entities to focus on Physical, Virtual, Switch, Router, Firewall, Load Balancer, Blade Server, Fex, Host Transport Node, Edge Transport Node, and VC Host to create a simple scope.

Member and auditor users can access saved network map scopes for better collaboration and insights sharing.

Easily switch between saved network map scopes; scopes are dynamically updated when data sources are added or deleted during snapshots.

Entities outside the selected scope are grayed out and non-clickable to help you streamline the troubleshooting process.

Ability to pin scoped network map and summary panel to custom dashboards helps you centralize critical network insights.

Snapshots are generated now even when the physical entity count exceeds UI limits if the limits are within the network rule count.

Efficiently create or delete groups in the Network map using a CSV input file based on IP address.

Monitor memory pool usage at the Edge nodes to prevent impact on services, data path, and management plane.

Distinguish between the firewall and the non-firewall packet drops at the logical port and logical switch.

Get insights into the exact nature of the non-firewall packet drops at the router ports such as unsupported destination/protocol, IPsec Policy Error/Blocked, Fragmentation, and so on.

Leverage features like threshold analytics, network insights, and search capabilities with the new metrics.

Focus on non-firewall-related packet drops using fine-tuned existing OOB alerts.

Added the following new widgets on VTGW and SDDC Group dashboard to provide flow visibility for SDDCs present in different regions in an SDDC group:

Added new widgets on the VMC SDDC group dashboard to provide better information on flows and top talkers.

Improved alert usability with the following new capabilities:

With this improvement, you can close all current open alerts and focus on new alerts as they are generated.

Consistent experiences across SNMP and email integration:

Define tag key-value pair for a wide range of assets, including switches, routers, firewalls, and hosts. This customization capability enables you to organize and categorize your network assets in a way that makes the most sense for your unique environment.

Effortlessly add up to 25 tags to entities, even you can bulk add tags to help you streamline the process of labeling assets according to your needs.

Modify or delete tags as your network evolves to ensure that your tagging system stays relevant over time.

Defined tags that are integrated throughout the product, offering enhanced visibility and search capabilities. Whether you're exploring the network map, analyzing applications, or monitoring dashboards, local tags provide the context you need to make informed decisions.

Add tags as part of the payload while inserting or updating new data sources through Public API.

Now access two new IPLs for Network Discovery and HCX Monitoring to get step-by-step help on these use cases.

Updated Application Discovery and Insights IPL to include the new CSV import capability for flow-based app discovery.

Sorting, filtering, column re-ordering, and column preference changes are now persisted across all tables in the product for better usability.

Widget re-positioning and widget sizing (maximizing/minimizing) will be preserved in the entity (OOTB) and custom dashboards.

VMware NSX Data Center for vSphere (NSX-V) as a data source will be deprecated in future releases.

The following services will be impacted after deprecation:

Action Required

: Migrate your NSX-V instances to VMware NSX-T and add VMware NSX-T instances as data sources in VMware Aria Operations for Networks.

For NSX-T version 4.x and later, VMware Aria Operations for Networks doesn’t support VM-VM path for federation deployment and VMware Aria Operations for Networks Assurance and Verification.

Auto-arrange your entire Network Map or a set of selected groups within the Network Map. When you reset the map, the layout is automatically adjusted to best fit the screen.

Bulk select multiple devices on the Network Map and easily create groups. You can also select multiple devices and drag them together to a new location in the Network Map.

Create groups using IP address, IP range, subnet, and custom search. Newly added data sources matching the search criteria are automatically included in the relevant groups.

Get system-generated alerts if any previously defined intents are not valid. You can also modify the intents to match your current scenario.

Perform Network Map path search with physical and virtual entities where the total network rule count and total physical entity count are within their respective limits. 

Intent validations are now independent of the Network Map if the previously described limits are met.

VMware ESXi Hosts are now automatically grouped in Network Map based on their respective VMware vCenter clusters.

Create multiple groups in Network Map using the CSV import option through the command line interface. 

VMware Aria Operations for Networks supports TLS version 1.3.

Co-existence of CPU Universal and Per Core Universal subscription is now supported. You can purchase Per Core Universal subscription for expansion while your CPU Universal subscription is still active. The usage is displayed in terms of cores.  

You can now configure hostnames for platform and collectors using the command line interface. These hostnames are displayed on the Infrastructure and Support page, search results, alerts, and the entity page. For more details, see How to change the hostname of a platform or a collector node.

SNMP trap body in alerts has additional fields of problem entity and manager to improve the mean time to repair (MTTR).

Add physical devices configured with stronger cipher algorithms for SSH connections as managed data sources. For more details on the supported cipher algorithms, see Encryption Algorithms and Ciphers.

You can now bulk update SNMP credentials for third-party data sources.

You can now export discovered devices as a CSV file.

You can now import devices from a CSV file to add them as data sources.

You can now upload a CSV file which is used by Flow-based Application Discovery (FBAD) to improve the discovery of applications.

Flow-based Application Discovery now considers dynamic port ranges when grouping VMs into a tier. 

VMware Aria Operations for Networks introduces new widgets in the widget library. Some of the newly introduced widgets are Top Talkers, Flow Insights, and Application widgets.

You can now edit the name of the widget title.

Deprecation Notice

- All Pinboards-related components will be removed from the VMware Aria Operations for Networks 6.12 release. Pinboard public APIs will be deprecated and the backup or restore for pinboards will not be supported.

VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.12.0 with PSPACK7 supports the installation of VMware Aria Operations for Networks 6.11. See VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.12 Product Support Pack Release Notes. To install and upgrade VMware Aria Operations for Networks by using VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle, see the VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle Installation, Upgrade, and Management Guide.

Host metrics:

NSX-T Edge metrics

Insights are now relocated from the Dependency Graph widget to a dedicated Troubleshooting Insights widget.

The

Summary

widget is renamed to the

Troubleshooting Information

widget which is more concise and uses less screen space.

Metric charts are updated to include more space to show the full name of the metric and entity. Now, you do need to hover to get full information.

The Dependency tree actions such as filters and extension icons are always visible when available.

You can now scan the network by either providing an IP range or by providing a Seed IP to discover various devices such as routers, switches, firewalls, and load balancers, and automatically add them in bulk as data sources.

You can also periodically run discovery profiles to find new supported devices in the network and then add them as managed data sources. This provides quick time to value if your network is large, or if you do not have a single source of truth for your physical devices.

Device discovery helps you to understand what is in your network and VMware Aria Operations for Networks automatically manages them once you add them as data sources.