System Recommendations and Requirements

For optimum performance, you must match the minimum recommendations for the deployment.

Recommendations for the Platform Deployment

Specifications for Platform Brick Size
Brick Size
Cores required
for 2.1 GHz CPU
Cores required
for 2.3 GHz CPU
Cores required
for 2.6 GHz CPU
RAM
Disk
Medium
10
9
8
32 GB
1 TB
Large
15
14
12
48 GB
1 TB
Extra Large
20
18
16
64 GB
2 TB
  • The reservation for the CPU speed and RAM for each node must be 100% of the value specified above.
  • If the disk in any of the platform nodes exceeds 95% of the capacity,
    VMware Aria Operations for Networks
    UI will not be accessible.
  • To match your setup to all the specifications, you might have to add the resources (RAM, Disk, CPU). See https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/53550 and Increase the Brick Size of Your Setup.
Non-Cluster Deployment - Maximum Capacity
Brick Size
*Number of VMs
(K = Thousand)
Flows per Day
(M = Million)
Total Flows
(M = Million)
Flow Planning
(M = Million)
Number of Network Rules for Network Map and Intents
(K = Thousand)
*Number of Edges for
VMware SD-WAN
(K = Thousand)
Number of VMs for Flow Based Application Discovery
Number of UI Entities in the Network Map Topology
Medium
4K
1M
4M
2M
Not Applicable
2K
Not Supported
Not Supported
Large
6K
2M
8M
4M
Not Applicable
2K
Not Supported
Not Supported
Extra Large
10K
2M
8M
4M
170K
4K
3K
5K
  • The Network Verification and Assurance (Network Map and Intents) and Flow Based Application Discovery (Flows) features are available only for Extra Large brick size only.
  • * The count of VMs and edges mentioned in the table is the maximum individual limit for a single deployment. So, if you have edges in your setup, you might have to reduce the VM count.
  • The count of VMs includes the templates on the
    VMware vCenter
    as well.
  • Total Flows is the maximum count of flows the system can store for the retention period.
  • Flow Planning is the total flows for which the system can perform security planning.
Cluster Deployment - Maximum Capacity
Deployment Scenario
Brick Size
Cluster Size
*Number of VMs
(K = Thousand)
Flows per Day
(M = Million)
Total Flows
(M = Million)
Flow Planning
(M = Million)
Number of Network Rules for Network Map and Intents
(K = Thousand)
*Number of Edges for
VMware SD-WAN
(K = Thousand)
Number of VMs for Flow Based Application Discovery
Number of UI Entities in the Network Map Topology
Scenario 1
Large
3
10K
2M
8M
4M
Not Applicable
4K
Not Supported
5K
Extra Large
3
18K
6M
24M
6M
170K
6K
3K
5K
Extra Large
5
30K
10M
40M
10M
170K
10K
3K
5K
Extra Large
7
58K
12M
48M
10M
170K
10K
3K
5K
Extra Large
10
100K
15M
60M
10M
170K
10K
3K
5K
Extra Large
15
150K
20M
80M
10M
170K
10K
3K
5K
Scenario 2
Extra Large
3
12K
3M
12M
4M
2M
6K
12K
100K
Extra Large
5
18K
6M
24M
6M
5M
10K
24K
100K
Extra Large
7
30K
10M
40M
10M
5M
10K
24K
100K
Extra Large
10
72K
13M
52M
10M
5M
10K
24K
100K
Extra Large
15
130K
18M
72M
10M
5M
10K
24K
100K
  • Scenario 1 focuses on VMs and flows while running automated Application Discovery and Network Assurance and Verification features with limited capacity. Scenario 2 is for an environment that needs to run automated Application Discovery and Network Assurance and Verification feature with full capacity.
  • The Network Verification and Assurance (Network Map and Intents) and Flow Based Application Discovery (Flows) features are available only for Extra Large brick size only.
  • The number of UI entities means the sum of nodes and edges supported in the Network Map topology.
  • The number of rules includes all forwarding entries, including layer 3, layer 2, access control, and NAT.
  • * The count of VMs and edges mentioned in the table is the maximum individual limit for a single deployment. So, if you have edges in your setup, you might have to reduce the VM count.
  • The number of VMs includes the templates on the
    VMware vCenter
    as well.
  • Cluster size is the total number of nodes in the cluster.
  • Total Flows is the count of flows in the system for the retention period.
  • The query to determine the Total Flows is
    count of flows in last 31 days
    , assuming the retention period as 31 days.
  • Flow Planning is the total flows for which the system can perform security planning.
  • VMware Aria Operations for Networks
    supports maximum 10,000 security groups and 10,000 IPSets for a cluster deployment of 10 XL.

Recommendation for the Collector Deployment

Specifications for Collector Brick Size
Brick Size
Cores required for 2.1 GHz CPU
Cores required for 2.3 GHz CPU
Cores required for 2.6 GHz CPU
RAM
Disk
Medium
5
5
4
12 GB
200 GB
Large
10
9
8
16 GB
200 GB
Extra Large
10
9
8
24 GB
200 GB
2X Large
20
18
16
48 GB
300 GB
The reservation for the CPU speed and RAM for each node must be 100% of the value specified above.
Collector Deployment - Maximum Capacity
Collector Size
Number of VMs
(K = Thousand)
Flows per Day
(M = Million)
Flow count in 4 days
(M = Million)
Number of Edges for
VMware SD-WAN
(K = Thousand)
Medium
4K
2.5M
3.25M
4K
Large
10K
5M
6.5M
6K
Extra Large
35K
10M
13M
10K
2X Large
45K
17M
22M
10K
  • The count of VMs and edges mentioned in the table is the maximum individual limit for a single deployment. So, if you have edges in your setup, you might have to reduce the VM count.
  • The count of VMs includes the templates on the
    VMware vCenter
    as well.
  • For a single deployment with more than one collector, the limitation on the total flows across collectors is based on the capacity of the platform.

Other Requirements and Considerations

  • The maximum time skew between the platform nodes has to be lesser than 30 seconds.
  • The availability of the NTP service is critical to system operations. Ensure that you do not reboot the platform node or the collector node when the NTP service is not available.
  • When the existing compute resources are completely used by the other processes on the platform,
    VMware Aria Operations for Networks
    crashes and does not recover automatically. If the services fail to recover, reboot the platform node.
  • If the network latency between platform node and upgrade server is greater than 500ms, the
    VMware Aria Operations for Networks
    upgrade might encounter an error. So, the network latency must be less than 500ms.
  • The recommended network latency between platform VMs for optimal performance is up to 3ms. The system performance might degrade beyond the limit.
  • The recommended network latency between platform and collector VMs for optimal performance is up to 150ms. The system performance might degrade beyond this limit.
  • The recommended disk latency for optimal performance is up to 5ms. If the disk latency is greater than 5ms, the system performance degrades.
  • The recommended disk IOPS is 7500.
  • For optimum performance, the recommended bandwidth usage between the collector and the platform is 15 Megabytes per second (MBps) or 120 Megabits per second (Mbps).
    These bandwidth recommendations are made considering the largest collector and the largest platform brick sizes mentioned in this topic.
  • For Network Map, the maximum supported firewall rules per VMware NSX-T Manager (including of DFW and edge rules) is 5000.
  • To use the Assurance and Verification feature in
    VMware Aria Operations for Networks
    , you must enable Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) and Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) (if supported) on the network devices.
  • As IPv6 addresses occupy more space in memory and disk, enabling IPv6 flow processing can reduce the platform and the collector capacity by up to 20%.

Supported TLS Versions

VMware Aria Operations for Networks
supports Transport Layer Security (TLS) versions 1.2 and 1.3.

Supported Web Browser

  • Google Chrome: The latest two versions.
  • Mozilla Firefox: The latest two versions.

Recommendations to Support High Availability

You can customize vSphere HA options to enable vSphere high availability.
  • Host Failure
    - Restart VMs
  • Host Isolation
    - Deactivated
  • Guest not heartbeating
    - Deactivated