What's New for VMware Aria Operations for Logs at VMware Explore 2023

Earlier this week on Tuesday, August 22, 2023, during the Solution Keynote session, Accelerate Application Delivery for Continuous Innovation VMware’s SVP and GM, Purnima Padmanabhan, talked about how VMware Aria Operations products will work together better with VMware Tanzu products to provide benefits. (Figure 1)

During this week’s sessions, one theme was helping applications run better in multi-cloud. At VMware Explore 2023, VMware Aria Operations for Logs introduces new federated queries, public APIs, and reporting capabilities to help manage log data at scale with deep operational visibility and intelligent analytics for troubleshooting across multi-cloud environments.

Figure 2. An attendee at VMware Explore 2023 is speaking with VMware Technical Marketing Manager Tim George at the booth demonstration for VMware Aria Operations and VMware Aria Operations for Logs.

Figure 3. During session MAPB2780LV: Accelerate App Delivery on VMware Clouds: Exploring the Power of VMware Tanzu and VMware Aria Cloud Management, the value of VMware Aria Operations for Logs working together with the VMware Aria and VMware Tanzu portfolios was presented for rapid troubleshooting, scalable analysis, and better application performance.

Figure 4. The team is getting enthusiastic in preparation for the sessions.

VMware press release

VMware Expands Tanzu to Accelerate App Delivery at Enterprise Scale – VMware News and Stories

“VMware Aria continues to provide cloud management solutions with the Aria Automation and Aria Operations product families for VMware Cloud based infrastructure environments. Aria Universal Suite is available standalone and as part of the VMware Cloud Editions.”

VMware Aria Operations for Logs is part of the VMware Aria Operations set of products and VMware Aria Universal Suite. The solution helps optimize log management. Logs from the infrastructure contain valuable information that can help troubleshoot issues, analyze trends, help with compliance, and identify opportunities for improvement.

What’s New at VMware Explore 2023

The What’s New at VMware Explore 2023 webpage shared how VMware Aria Operations for Logs will add new integrations with multiple other products across the VMware Aria portfolio.

Webpage: What’s New at VMware Explore 2023 (Enterprise Cloud tab)

“Gain a singular view of all your VMware Aria Operations, VMware Aria Operations for Logs, and VMware Aria Operations for Applications content with a unified VMware Aria Content section

Effortlessly create new content for VMware Aria Operations, VMware Aria Operations for Logs, and VMware Aria Operations for Applications using the new SaaS Platform – Content Builder.

VMware Aria Operations for Logs – support is now available for Federated Queries, which provides a single pane of glass to search for logs across on-premises clusters and the SaaS instance, delivering a comprehensive search experience, along with new content packs for Apache CFL and VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator

Visualize the usage summary and health of all VMware Aria Operations for Logs (on-premises) clusters on a single screen with Federated Log Management Support.”

Highlights

Managing logs can be a difficult task, especially when dealing with large volumes of data from multiple global sources. One of the key features will be to help with the challenges of multiple logging instances is that customers will be able to optimize their log management with Federated Queries.

Figure 5. Federated Queries with on-premises instances sending information to a SaaS instance.

Federated Queries will offer a comprehensive search experience for logs across on-premises clusters to a SaaS Instance in a single pane of glass. This solution will allow customers to more easily troubleshoot across multiple instances of VMware Aria Operations for Logs that a customer might have. An example of how useful this will be for customers is for the GDPR use case. This capability will allow customers to keep their on-premises log data in their on-premises location but not need to move the on-premises data to see it in the SaaS instance for visibility. In this case, the log data can stay on-premises in the logging location.

Figure 6. A view from VMware Aria Operations which is showing log information from an integration with VMware Aria Operations for Logs.

Native integration with VMware Aria Operations will receive log information natively, so cross-launch will not be required as in the past. Integration between VMware Aria Operations and VMware Aria Operations for Logs was available earlier, but with this latest release, the integration will have more capabilities. There will be new abilities to cross-launch as needed to look further into the logs. This integration will also make it easier for customers to use VMware Aria Operations as their main dashboard. Customers with VMware Aria Operations will be able to see all the information from logs within the VMware Aria Operations single pane of glass.

Figure 7. Scheduled Reports for log information.

The new Scheduled Reports functionality for VMware Aria Operations for Logs feature allows customers to quickly receive periodic dashboard reports through email. Customers will now have an easier time with compliance and security auditing using this new functionality. The scheduled reporting functionality will work consistently across both on-premises and SaaS deployments. The Reporting screens will also show who created the report and when.

Figure 8. Usage Reports to have more visibility to save on logging costs.

Usage Reports will allow customers to gain visibility into top log-generating sources so that customers can drop irrelevant log messages for cost savings. Customers will be able to gain visibility into top log-generating sources and drop irrelevant log messages for cost savings. The Usage reports will give information such as who the top contributors of log information are. Once this information is known, the top log contributors can be further examined to see if the level of logs is applicable. If this logging level is too detailed, the user will know to adjust the filters and threshold limits to reduce the number of logs the top contributor creates. This capability will allow the admin to reduce the incoming logs and log ingestion and thus reduce logging costs.

There will be increased support for Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) logs. This latest capability will now allow customers to view logs from the various VMware Clouds in one place.

There will also be Ingestion Limit Notifications. This capability will proactively monitor log ingestion volume and send notifications when the platform approaches thresholds.

There will be new Public APIs for better integration and automation across 3rd party (SaaS) and content packs for Apache Web Service and VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator, giving customers more options for analyzing and interpreting log data.

Figure 9. The VMware Explore Hands-on Lab Command Center where customers can test drive the solutions including VMware Aria Operations for Logs – Getting Started [SPL-HOL-2423-01-CMP].

Figure 10. The Expo team getting ready as the show floor opens.

As we heard in the VMware Explore keynotes and sessions, IT infrastructures must be efficient and secure in today’s fast-paced business environment. The new logging capabilities discussed at VMware Explore 2023 will play a critical role in enabling IT teams to identify and resolve issues quickly. Companies can ensure their operations run smoothly and securely with a holistic view of their environment. The innovations help make VMware Aria Operations for Logs an essential part of any IT infrastructure seeking to operate efficiently and securely.