VMware Aria Operations MCP Skill

Note: In VCF 9.0 and later, VMware Aria Operations has been rebranded as VCF Operations. This skill works against both names — the /suite-api/ REST endpoints are unchanged.

Author: Wei Zhou, VMware by Broadcom — wei-wz.zhou@broadcom.com This is a community-driven project by a VMware engineer, not an official VMware product. For official VMware developer tools see developer.broadcom.com.

AI-assisted monitoring and capacity planning for VMware Aria Operations (vRealize Operations) via the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Overview

vmware-aria exposes 28 MCP tools for interacting with Aria Operations through natural language AI agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Goose, etc.):

Category	Tools	Type
Resources	list, get, metrics, health badge, top consumers	Read-only (5)
Alerts	list, get, investigate (alert→resource), acknowledge, cancel, definitions	Read + 2 Write (6)
Alert Definitions	symptom definitions, create, enable/disable, delete	Read + 3 Write (4)
Capacity	overview, remaining, time-remaining, rightsizing	Read-only (4)
Reports	definitions, generate, list, get, delete	Read + 2 Write (5)
Anomaly	list anomalies, risk badge	Read-only (2)
Health	platform health, collector groups	Read-only (2)

Total: 28 tools — 21 read-only, 7 write

• Read-only mode — one env var strips every write tool from the MCP registry; ideal for audits, PoCs, and untrusted/local models — see Read-Only Mode

Quick Start

# Install
uv tool install vmware-aria

# Configure
mkdir -p ~/.vmware-aria
cat > ~/.vmware-aria/config.yaml << 'EOF'
targets:
  prod:
    host: aria-ops.example.com
    username: admin
    port: 443
    verify_ssl: true
    auth_source: LOCAL
default_target: prod
EOF

# Set password (never in config.yaml)
echo "VMWARE_ARIA_PROD_PASSWORD=your_password" > ~/.vmware-aria/.env
chmod 600 ~/.vmware-aria/.env

# Verify setup
vmware-aria doctor

Read-Only Mode

A prompt instruction is advisory — a model can ignore it. Read-only mode is structural: set VMWARE_READ_ONLY=true and all 7 write tools (alert acknowledge/cancel, alert definition create/enable-disable/delete, report generate/delete) are removed from the MCP registry at startup. list_tools() never offers them, so the model cannot call what it cannot see. Off by default, and fail-closed: if the mode is requested but cannot be guaranteed, the server refuses to start.

Three ways to enable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vmware-aria": {
      "command": "vmware-aria",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": { "VMWARE_READ_ONLY": "true" }
    }
  }
}

• Per-skill override: VMWARE_ARIA_READ_ONLY=true (takes precedence over the family-wide VMWARE_READ_ONLY)
• Config alternative: read_only: true in ~/.vmware-aria/config.yaml

Precedence: per-skill env → family env → config → off. Startup logs list exactly which tools were withheld.

Running with local or small models? See skills/vmware-aria/references/agent-guardrails.md.

CLI Examples

# List top CPU consumers
vmware-aria resource top --metric cpu|usage_average --top 10

# Check active CRITICAL alerts
vmware-aria alert list --criticality CRITICAL

# Acknowledge an alert
vmware-aria alert acknowledge <alert-id>

# Fetch 4-hour CPU + memory metrics for a VM
vmware-aria resource metrics <vm-id> --metrics cpu|usage_average,mem|usage_average --hours 4

# Check cluster capacity
vmware-aria capacity remaining <cluster-id>
vmware-aria capacity time-remaining <cluster-id>

# Find rightsizing opportunities
vmware-aria capacity rightsizing

# Check Aria platform health
vmware-aria health status
vmware-aria health collectors

MCP Setup (Claude Code)

After uv tool install vmware-aria, add to ~/.claude.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vmware-aria": {
      "command": "vmware-aria",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": {
        "VMWARE_ARIA_CONFIG": "~/.vmware-aria/config.yaml"
      }
    }
  }
}

v1.5.15+ uses the single-command form vmware-aria mcp. The legacy vmware-aria-mcp console script is still kept for backward compatibility. If you must use uvx --from vmware-aria vmware-aria mcp (no install) and hit invalid peer certificate: UnknownIssuer behind a corporate TLS proxy, set UV_NATIVE_TLS=true or use the recommended vmware-aria mcp form above.

Then use natural language:

• "Show me the top 10 CPU consumers right now"
• "List all CRITICAL alerts and acknowledge them"
• "How long until the prod cluster runs out of memory?"
• "Which VMs are over-provisioned? Show rightsizing recommendations"
• "Are there any anomalies on vm-web-01?"

Authentication

Aria Operations uses vRealizeOpsToken authentication:

POST /suite-api/api/auth/token/acquire
{"username": "admin", "password": "...", "authSource": "LOCAL"}
→ {"token": "abc123", "validity": 1765182896000}  # validity = expiry epoch ms

Subsequent requests: Authorization: vRealizeOpsToken abc123

Tokens have a 6-hour sliding validity (extended on each call, per the official spec); the client re-acquires automatically 60 seconds before expiry. The validity field is the expiry timestamp in epoch milliseconds, not a duration.

Architecture

User (natural language)
  ↓
AI Agent (Claude Code / Goose / Cursor)
  ↓  [reads SKILL.md]
vmware-aria MCP server (stdio transport)
  ↓  [HTTPS + vRealizeOpsToken]
Aria Operations Suite API
  ↓
VMs / Hosts / Clusters / Alerts / Capacity

Companion Skills

Skill	Scope	Tools	Install
vmware-aiops ⭐ entry point	VM lifecycle, deployment, guest ops, clusters	49	uv tool install vmware-aiops
vmware-monitor	Read-only monitoring, alarms, events, VM info	27	uv tool install vmware-monitor
vmware-nsx	NSX networking: segments, gateways, NAT, IPAM	33	uv tool install vmware-nsx-mgmt
vmware-nsx-security	DFW microsegmentation, security groups, Traceflow	21	uv tool install vmware-nsx-security
vmware-avi	AVI / NSX ALB load balancing, AKO K8s operations	28	uv tool install vmware-avi
vmware-storage	Datastores, iSCSI, vSAN	11	uv tool install vmware-storage
vmware-vks	Tanzu Namespaces, TKC cluster lifecycle	20	uv tool install vmware-vks
vmware-harden	Compliance baselines, drift detection	6	uv tool install vmware-harden

Security

• Passwords loaded from env vars or .env file, never from config.yaml
• Write operations (alert acknowledge/cancel, alert definition management, report generate/delete) audit-logged to ~/.vmware/audit.db (MCP, via vmware-policy) and ~/.vmware-aria/audit.log (CLI)
• API responses sanitized (control chars stripped, 500-char limit) to prevent prompt injection
• Supports self-signed certificates (verify_ssl: false) for lab environments

Official Broadcom References

• REST APIs: https://developer.broadcom.com/xapis — VCF Operations API (formerly Aria Operations suite-api)
• SDKs: https://developer.broadcom.com/sdks — VCF Python SDK
• CLI Tools: https://developer.broadcom.com/tools — PowerCLI 9.1 includes "VCF Operations (formerly vRealize Operations Manager)" cmdlets

License

MIT — see LICENSE