Build Tools for VMware Aria provides development and release management tools for implementing automation solutions based on the VMware Aria Suite and VMware Cloud Director. The solution enables Virtual Infrastructure Administrators and Automation Developers to use standard DevOps practices for managing and deploying content.
As of January 2023, Build Tools for VMware Aria (formerly vRealize Build Tools, vRBT) is open source. This means that anyone can contribute to it by following the GitHub repository rules.
The source code for Build Tools for VMware Aria is distributed under the BSD2 License. Anyone is free to use the code and/or the binaries. VMware does not charge for using Build Tools for VMware Aria and does not provide standard support for customers using the software.
In the past, before Build Tools for VMware Aria was open-sourced, it was a custom solution being delivered to customers through billable VMware Professional Services engagements. Each customer was paying for the effort related to the deployment and the configuration of the tool as a reusable asset, and not for the effort for developing it as such. Now, Build Tools for VMware Aria is open source and can be easily deployed/modified by anyone. If you would like assistance in deploying the solution, please reach out to VMware Professional Services or your VMware sales executive.
The tracking of features and bugs is a core functionality that is available for each GitHub repository. General guidelines for this process can be found in the repository contribution guide. Once the details of a feature/bug are provided in the repository, anyone can start implementing the feature/fix. Once ready, the contributor can create a Pull Request to merge the implemented changes in the repository. Contributing to any feature and or bugfixes is done on a best-effort basis. In case the issue is critical for the author, there are several approaches which can prioritize the implementation:
- Option 1: Request a Build Tools for VMware Aria change through a VMware Professional Services engagement. A customer provides the new requirements and then the VMware team estimates the effort and implements the functionality. As a result, the customer (and the community) receive a tested, validated, and released version of the feature.
- Option 2: Describe the feature in a GitHub Issues page and commit the implementation to the Build Tools for VMware Aria repository. Once the changes are approved and aligned with the overall tool strategy, the code is merged and made available for anyone in the open-source community.
Note that when implementing new features or bugfixes, it's the responsibility of the developer to ensure backward compatibility with the previous versions of the tool.
Release management is performed by the build-tools-for-vmware-aria-maintainers group for Build Tools for VMware Aria.
As Build Tools for VMware Aria is open-source software, licensed under the BSD2 license, there is no official VMware standard support available. In case you would like to receive Build Tools for VMware Aria support, VMware can offer a Custom Professional Services Support (CPSS) contract to cover any malfunctioning of the tool. CPSS is a service that you can purchase separately. For more information, contact your VMware sales executive.
In case a CPSS contract is not available, a customer can follow the standard process of reporting the observed issue on GitHub but VMware cannot commit to a resolution date for the reported issue.
The documentation for Build Tools for VMware Aria is stored in Markdown (md) files inside the source code repository. All documentation is shared with the understating that it is provided as-is without any warranty. In case a customer requests a document improvement, this can be handled through a VMware Professional Services engagement (or a change to an exiting engagement).