Published on 11 April 2025 by Christopher Lewis. Words: 2347. Reading Time: 12 mins.
Introduction
In this post, we will walkthrough how to create two new Super Metrics so that, in a List View for the Compute Cluster Resource, we can include metrics based on descendent objects, such as the total number of Undersized and the total number of Oversized virtual machines in the cluster.
In Aria Operations, a Super Metric is essentially a custom metric that is derived from a mathematical formula that uses one or more metrics or properties.
What is a Descendent/Ascendent object?
In Aria Operations, there are out of the box relationships between objects. As we add new content via Management Packs, new relationships are created. These relationships can be between the new objects being included in monitoring or between the new and the existing objects.
As we can see from the diagram, relationships can be visualized via the Object Relationship (Advanced) widget within an Aria Operations dashboard.
In the example, we are using the Cluster Compute Resource and we can see that it has a direct relationship with both the Datacenter and Host System objects. This can be characterized in the following ways:
A Datacenter can have one or more Cluster Compute Resources.
A Cluster Compute Resource can have one or more Host Systems.
From the perspective of the Cluster Compute Resource, it’s Ascendant objects are the anything to the left of it in the diagram (i.e. the Datacenter and any of its ascendants) and the Descendent objects are anything to the right of it (i.e. the Host System Objects and any of its descendants such as Virtual Machines).
Note:
The reason we use the terms Ascendant/Descendent rather than Parent/Child is because a Parent/Child relationship would only be one level up or down and we may need to traverse multiple levels to get to the metrics we would like to surface in the view.
What is ‘Depth’ in a Super Metric?
Depth is the relative hierarchical distance between the Object that we want to assign the Super Metric to and the object that has the metric we want to use (based on the Object relationships). The values can be negative or positive depending on which way up/down the hierarchy we are going.
For example, if we take the Object Relationship shown in Figure 1, that shows the Cluster Compute Resource and the relationships between ascendant and descendent objects. As we want to surface our new Super Metric at the Cluster Compute Resource object, that is Depth=0. As the Super Metric contains metrics from a Virtual Machine (which is 2 objects down the hierarchy) that gets assigned a Depth=2. When we consider those relationships, the following table can be created:
Table 1: Understanding Relationship Depth
Metric
Depth
Data Center
-1
Cluster Compute Resource
0
Host System
1
Virtual Machine
2
Scenario and Solution Recap
The Scenario
We need to create a List View for each vSphere Cluster that shows the following information:
Cluster Name
%CPU Workload
%Memory Workload
Total Number of Virtual Machines
Total Number of Undersized Virtual Machines
Total Number of Oversized Virtual Machines
The Problem Statement
Two of the required metrics, Total Number of Undersized Virtual Machines and Total Number of Undersized Virtual Machines, are not available at the Compute Cluster Resource object level.
The Solution
We plan to create two new Super Metrics at the Cluster Compute Resource object to count the number of descendent Virtual Machine objects that either are undersized or oversized.
Planning The Super Metrics
There are a number of things to consider when creating a Super Metric that will help ensure that we are successful.
Table 2: Planning Super Metric(s)
Question
Super Metric 1
Super Metric 2
What will the name of Super Metric be?
Total Oversized VMs
Total Undersized VMs
Which Object(s) will be included in the Super Metric?
Virtual Machine
Virtual Machine
Which Metric(s) will be included in the Super Metric?
Summary | IsOversized
Summary | IsUndersized
How will the Metric(s) be combined to create the Super Metric?
Sum
Sum
Which Object(s) will the Super Metric be assigned to?
Cluster Compute Resource
Cluster Compute Resource
Which Policies will the Super Metric be assigned too?
Default
Default
Note:
Once created, if we need to delete a Super Metric, it will remain associated to the assigned Object(s) (showing as sm_<guid>) until the Metric retention period elapses. Whilst this is not a major issue, it can quickly get a little untidy!
In this step by step walkthrough, we are going to use VMware Aria Operations to create two super metrics, then we will include them in the default policy and finally, we will create a List View to show the new metrics.
Prerequisites
To complete the step by step guide, you will need at least the following:
An instance of Aria Operations 8.x
Creating the ‘Total Oversized VMs’ Super Metric
Navigate to https://<ops.fqdn> in the web browser and select vIDMAuthSource from the dropdown.
Note:
We are using VMware Identity Manager to authenticate users.
Click REDIRECT.
At the VMware Identity Manager login, type the cloud administrative username into the username field.
At the VMware Identity Manager login, type the cloud administrative password into the password field.
At the VMware Identity Manager login, click Sign in.
At the Home screen, click the Operations to expand the menu.
At the Home screen, scroll down the Operations navigation menu items.
At the Home screen, click Configurations.
At the Configurations screen, scroll down to the bottom of the page.
At the Configurations screen, click the Super Metrics card.
At the Super Metrics screen, click ADD.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click « to minimize the menu.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, type Total Oversized VMs into the Name field.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click NEXT.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, select vCenter > Cluster Compute Resource from the Object Types dropdown.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click NEXT.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click inside the formula window.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click Function from the menu.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, scroll down and select sum from the menu.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, select Object Type from the menu.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, scroll down and select Virtual Machine from the menu.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, select Metric from the menu.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, scroll down and select Summary|isOversized from the menu.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, amend the supper metric formula replacing depth=1 with depth=2.
Note:
We are using VMware Identity Manager to authenticate users.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click VALIDATE.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, assuming validation was successful, click PREVIEW.
We can see that the cluster has a number of oversized VMs in it.
Note:
If you have more than one cluster and there are no oversized VMs showing. You can select a different cluster from the Objects text field.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click NEXT.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, check the Default Policy checkbox to ensure the Super Metric is automatically enabled in the policy.
Note:
There maybe more than just the Default Policy listed here. We can select as many as we would like but we cannot create a new Policy here. If we wanted to add the new super metric to a new policy, we would not select anything here.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click CREATE.
Creating the ‘Total Undersized VMs’ Super Metric
Now that we have created our first Super Metric using the ‘pretty’ interface, let us quickly create the second Super Metric using the ‘unformatted’ interface!
Note:
After clicking CREATE at the end of the first SUper Metric wizard, we will have returned back to the Super Metric page.
At the Super Metrics screen, click ADD.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click « to minimize the menu.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, type Total Undersized VMs into the Name field.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click NEXT.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, select vCenter > Cluster Compute Resource from the Object Types dropdown.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click NEXT.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, toggle the unformatted switch to ON.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, type SUM(${adaptertype=VMWARE, objecttype=VirtualMachine, metric=summary|undersized, depth=2}) into the textfield.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click VALIDATE.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, assuming validation was successful, click NEXT.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, check the Default Policy checkbox to ensure the Super Metric is automatically enabled in the policy.
Note:
There maybe more than just the Default Policy listed here. We can select as many as we would like but we cannot create a new Policy here. If we wanted to add the new super metric to a new policy, we would not select anything here.
At the Create Super Metrics screen, click CREATE.
Creating the List View
At the Super Metrics screen, click the Operations menu item.
At the Super Metrics screen, click the Views menu item.
At the Views screen, click the + CREATE menu item.
At the Views Types screen, click the List card.
At the Create View screen, click the « to minimize the navigation menu.
At the Create View screen, type List View - Cluster Compute Resource with VM Rightsizing into the Name field.
At the Create View screen, click NEXT.
At the Create View screen, select vCenter > Cluster Compute Resource from the Add Subject dropdown.
At the Create View screen, click Metrics to expand the list of available metrics for this resource object.
At the Create View screen, click CPU to expand the list of available CPU metrics for this resource object.
At the Create View screen, scroll down the list of available CPU metrics to locate Workload.
At the Create View screen, double-click on the CPU > Workload Metric to add it to the View.
Note:
We can see the preview updates to include the new metrics we have added.
At the Create View screen, with the CPU|Workload metric selected, under Configuration type CPU Workload into the the Metric label text field.
At the Create View screen, scroll down the list of available metrics to locate Memory metrics.
At the Create View screen, click Memory to expand the list of available Memory metrics for this resource object.
At the Create View screen, scroll down the list of available CPU metrics to locate Workload.
At the Create View screen, double-click on the Memory > Workload Metric to add it to the View.
At the Create View screen, with the Memory|Workload metric selected, under Configuration type Memory Workload into the the Metric label text field.
At the Create View screen, scroll down the list of available metrics to locate Summary.
At the Create View screen, click Summary to expand the list of available Summary metrics for this resource object.
At the Create View screen, scroll down the list of available Summary metrics to locate Total Number of VMs.
At the Create View screen, double-click on the Summary > Total Number of VMs Metric to add it to the View.
At the Create View screen, with the Summary|Total Number of VMs metric selected, under Configuration type Total VM Count into the the Metric label text field.
At the Create View screen, scroll up the list of available metrics to locate Metrics.
At the Create View screen, click Metrics to minimize the list of available metrics for this resource object.
At the Create View screen, click Super Metrics to expand the list of available Super Metrics for this resource object.
At the Create View screen, double-click on the Total Oversized VMs Super Metric to add it to the report.
At the Create View screen, under Configuration, type Total Oversized VMs into the Metric label field.
At the Create View screen, double-click on the Total Undersized VMs Super Metric to add it to the report.
At the Create View screen, under Configuration, type Total Undersized VMs into the Metric label field.
At the Create View screen, click CREATE.
Note:
For this post, we are not worried about any Time Settings or Filters for this view, but we could make changes to those if needed.
At the View screen, ensure that you have selected the correct Preview source from the dropdown.
And there we have it! A single List view that shows everything we needed to show!
Exported Super Metric Files
Now that we have created our Super Metric and Views we can export our Super Metrics. We may want to export Super Metrics to back them up, transfer them to additional Aria Operations deployments or, like me, share them with the wider community.
Super Metrics are a powerful capability with Aria Operations and through them we can create a multitude of different metrics based on mathematical formula. However, to quote a line from a Marvel Super Hero film, “With Great Power comes great responsibility”! Why do I say that? Well firstly, creating Super Metrics means additional metrics being stored in the Aria Operations Database, secondly if we delete a created metric, the metrics still get collected until they hit the retention period. Finally, Super Metrics can get really complicated really fast (and that’s probably why a lot of people shy away from them) but my advice is to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).
Published on 11 April 2025 by Christopher Lewis. Words: 2347. Reading Time: 12 mins.
