During a routine session in my lab the other day, I realized my Aria Operations instance was still humming along on version Aria Operations 8.18.3 -well overdue for the jump to Aria Operations 8.18.5. So I thought to write this blog to illustrate how I upgraded my lab instance using Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager (ASLCM). Not meant to be a guide, but it will show the steps I took to upgrade my environment, your mileage may vary.

Beyond the usual polish, this release tackles several nagging issues and addresses the critical vulnerabilities detailed in VMSA-2025-0015.

As seen below, my current instance shows I am running Aria Operations 8.18.3 (24663033)

For this upgrade I needed to download the Aria Operations upgrade binary and place it on the ASLCM box

I logged into the Support Portal, searched for Aria Suite -> Products -> Aria Operations -> View Group

I found the associated .pak file to upgrade the product, in my case it’s the “VMware Aria Operations -Virtual Appliance upgrade pak“

Once I downloaded the file I transferred it to my ASLCM machine using WinSCP

Then I logged into ASLCM and added the Product Binary

Then I selected the binary and clicked Add

Waited for the Product Source Mapping Request to complete…

And after the request fished, it showed up in the Binary list

To begin the upgrade, I then went to my environment View Details

With the Binary in place, I saw that under my Operations menu, I have an Upgrade option. Apologies I didn’t grab a screenshot of the item…but I clicked that option.

Another window popped up and I clicked Proceed

I then selected the product version I want to upgrade to, which is 8.18.5 – note the repository URL fill auto-fill since it’s already on the ASLCM box

Run the Upgrade Assessment (APUAT)

I always opt to take a snapshot!

Ran the precheck and it passed

Verified the install information, and I’m ready to hit upgrade

I tracked the upgrade stages in the request detail

And when it when through all 10 stages, the upgrade was complete!

Services rebooted, and Aria Ops came back up to the login screen, and after logging into Operations, I verified the upgraded version

And that’s it for the upgrade to Aria Operations 8.18.5!

Hopefully having this information helped make a better outcome. Have you hit snags with ASCLM upgrades? Drop a comment with your tips or questions—I’d love to hear from you!