vsphere perf charts

Overview Performance Charts HelpvSphere Client 4.0

vCenterESX

ESXi

EN--00

Overview Performance Charts Help

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Contents

1 Introducing the Overview Performance Charts Help 5

2 vSphere Client Performance Tab 7

3 Performance Chart Types 9

4 Understanding Performance Metrics 11

Data Counters 11Collection Levels 12Collection Intervals 13Data Availability 14

5 Working with Overview Performance Charts 17

Refresh Overview Performance Charts 17Set the Time Range for Overview Performance Charts 17View Overview Performance Charts 18View Thumbnail Charts 19

6 Working with Advanced Performance Charts 21

View Advanced Performance Charts 21View Advanced Performance Chart Help 22Set the Advanced Performance Charts as the Default 22

7 Overview Performance Charts 23

Clusters 23Datacenters 32Datastores 35Hosts 37Resource Pools 57vApps 60Virtual Machines 63

Index 87

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Introducing the OverviewPerformance Charts Help 1

The VMware® Overview Performance Charts Help provides information about the statistical data displayedin each overview chart. The overview charts show the performance statistics that VMware considers mostuseful for monitoring performance and diagnosing problems.

You can examine data about clusters, datacenters, datastores, hosts, resource pools, virtual machines, andvApps. To easily compare different metrics, you can view charts for an object side-by-side, for example, CPUusage and memory usage. This enables you to quickly troubleshoot performance issues, monitor usage trends,do capacity planning, and determine which resources to increase and decrease on your hosts and virtualmachines.

The help topic for each chart contains a description of the chart, the statistics displayed in the chart, and ananalysis section for troubleshooting and resolving problems.

To view the overview charts, the VMware vSphere Client must be connected to a vCenter Server.

NOTE The Overview Performance Charts Help does not describe how to work with the advanced performancecharts, which you access by clicking the Advanced button on the Performance tab. These charts are the defaultcharts in releases prior to vCenter Server 4.0. For this information, select Help > Help Topics in the vSphereClient.

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vSphere Client Performance Tab 2You can view the performance charts of objects that are in the vSphere Client inventory in the Performancetab.

The Performance tab has two tabs in which you can view charts.

Overview tab Displays charts containing basic CPU, disk, memory, network, and storagemetrics for the selected object and its child objects. The overview performancecharts appear by default when you click the Performance tab.

Advanced tab Displays a single chart containing CPU, disk, memory, network, or systemmetrics, depending on the settings that you configure and the metric group thatyou choose. Advanced charts display statistics that are not supported in theoverview performance charts. They also have a mouse-over feature thatprovides data-point information for a plotted metric.You must manually configure the advanced charts. For information aboutworking with the advanced performance charts, see the vSphere Client Help.

NOTE Storage metrics are not displayed in the advanced charts. You must use the overview charts for datastoreinformation.

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Performance Chart Types 3Performance metrics are displayed in different types of charts, depending on the metric type and object.

Table 3-1. Performance Chart Types

Chart Type Description

Line chart Displays metrics for a single inventory object. The data for each performance counter is plotted on aseparate line in the chart. For example, a network chart for a host can contain two lines: one showing thenumber of packets received, and one showing the number of packets transmitted.

Bar chart Displays storage metrics for datastores in a selected datacenter. Each datastore is represented as a bar inthe chart. Each bar displays metrics based on the file type: virtual disks, snapshots, swap files, and otherfiles.

Pie chart Displays storage metrics for a single object, based on the file types or virtual machines. For example, a piechart for a datastore can display the amount of storage space occupied by the virtual machines taking upthe largest space.

Stacked chart Displays metrics for the child objects that have the highest statistical values. All other objects areaggregated, and the sum value is displayed with the term Other. For example, a host's stacked CPU usagechart displays CPU usage metrics for the five virtual machines on the host that are consuming the mostCPU. The Other amount contains the total CPU usage of the remaining virtual machines.The metrics for the host itself are displayed in separate line charts.Stacked charts are useful in comparing resource allocation and usage across multiple hosts or virtualmachines. By default, the five child objects with the highest data counter values are displayed.

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Understanding Performance Metrics 4VMware ESX/ESXi hosts and the vCenter Server System use data counters to collect statistics for CPU, memory,disk, network, system, and storage metrics. You can view real-time statistics and historical statistics when thevSphere Client is connected to a vCenter Server.

Each counter collects data for a different statistic in a metric group. For example, the disk metric group includesseparate data counters to collect data for disk read rate, disk write rate, and disk usage. Statistics for eachcounter collected are rolled up after a specified collection interval and are displayed in a performance chartfor the object selected in the vSphere Client inventory.

You configure the amount of statistical data to collect by setting a level for each collection interval. The leveldetermines the number of data counters used during the interval.

For information about how statistics are collected and archived in the vCenter Server database, see the BasicSystem Administration guide.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n “Data Counters,” on page 11

n “Collection Levels,” on page 12

n “Collection Intervals,” on page 13

n “Data Availability,” on page 14

Data CountersA data counter collects a specific statistic for an object. For example, memory statistics include separate datacounters for consumed memory, active memory, and balloon memory.

Each data counter is comprised of several attributes that are used to determine the statistical value collected. Table 4-1 lists the data counter attributes.

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Table 4-1. Data Counter Attributes

Attribute Description

Unit of measurement How the statistic quantity is measured.n KiloBytes (KB) – 1024 bytesn KiloBytes per second (KBps) – 1024 bytes per secondn Kilobits (kb) – 1000 bitsn Kilobits per second (kbps) – 1000 bits per secondn MegaBytes (MB)n MegaBytes per second (MBps)n Megabits (mb)n Megabits per second (mbps)n MegaHertz (MHz)n Microseconds (µs)n Milliseconds (ms)n Number (#)n Percentage (%)n Seconds (s)

Description Text description of the data counter.

Statistics type Measurement used during the statistics interval. Related to the unit of measurement.n Rate – Value over the current statistics intervaln Delta – Change from previous statistics intervaln Absolute – Absolute value, independent of the statistics interval

Rollup Type Calculation method used during the statistics interval to roll up data. This determines the typeof statistical values that are returned for the counter. One of:n Average – Data collected during the interval is aggregated and averaged.

n Minimum – The minimum value is rolled up.n Maximum – The maximum value is rolled up.

The Minimum and Maximum values are collected and displayed only in collection level4. Minimum and maximum rollup types are used to capture peaks in data during theinterval. For real-time data, the value is the current minimum or current maximum. Forhistorical data, the value is the average minimum or average maximum.

For example, the following information for the CPU usage chart shows that the average iscollected at collection level 1 and the minimum and maximum values are collected atcollection level 4.n Counter: usagen Unit: Percentage (%)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

n Summation – Data collected is summed. The measurement displayed in the chartrepresents the sum of data collected during the interval.

n Latest – Data collected during the interval is a set value. The value displayed in theperformance charts represents the current value.

Collection level Number of data counters used to collect statistics. Collection levels range from 1 to 4, with 4having the most counters.

Collection LevelsCollection levels determine how much statistical data is gathered during each collection interval.

You can assign a collection level of 1 to 4 to each collection interval enabled on your vCenter Server, with 4containing the most data counters. By default, all collection intervals are enabled at collection level 1, whichhas the lowest impact on the vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi hosts.

Table 4-2 lists the collection levels available for the vCenter Server.


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Table 4-2. Collection Levels

Collection Level Includes the Following Metrics

Level 1 n Cluster Services (VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler) – all metricsn CPU – cpuentitlement, totalmhz, usage (average), usagemhzn Disk – capacity, maxTotalLatency, provisioned, unshared, usage (average), usedn Memory – consumed, mementitlement, overhead, swapinRate, swapoutRate, swapused,

totalmb, usage (average), vmmemctl (balloon)n Network – usage (average)n System – heartbeat, uptimen Virtual Machine Operations – numChangeDS, numChangeHost, numChangeHostDS

Level 2 n Level 1 metricsn CPU – idle, reservedCapacityn Disk – All metrics, excluding numberRead and numberWrite.n Memory – All metrics, excluding memUsed and maximum and minimum rollup values.n Virtual Machine Operations – All metrics

Level 3 n Level 1 and Level 2 metricsn Metrics for all counters, excluding minimum and maximum rollup values.n Device metrics

Level 4 All metrics supported by the vCenter Server, including minimum and maximum rollup values.

Generally, you need to use only collection levels 1 and 2 for performance monitoring and analysis. Levels 3and 4 provide granularity that is typically useful only for developers.

Unless the vCenter Server is set to a collection level that contains a data counter, the data for that counter isnot stored in the database nor is it rolled up into a past-day statistic on the ESX/ESXi host. The counter is notdisplayed in the performance charts.

You can specify a collection level for each statistics interval. The collection level set for a interval cannot begreater than the collection level set for the collection interval preceding it. For example, if the Month intervalis set to collection level 3, the Year interval can be set to collection level 1, 2, or 3, but not to collection level 4.This is a vCenter Server dependency.

For information about configuring collection levels and collection intervals, see Configuring Statistics Settingsin the vSphere Client Help.

Collection IntervalsCollection intervals determine the time period during which statistics are aggregated and rolled up, and thelength of time the statistics are archived in the vCenter database. They do not apply to real-time statisticscollected on ESX/ESXi hosts.

By default, vCenter Server has four collection intervals: Day, Week, Month, and Year. Each interval specifiesa length of a time statistics are archived in the vCenter database. You can configure which intervals are enabledand for what period of time. You can also configure the number of data counters used during a collectioninterval by setting the collection level. Together, the collection interval and collection level determine howmuch statistical data is collected and stored in your vCenter Server database.

Table 4-3 lists the default collection intervals available for the vCenter Server.

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Table 4-3. Collection Intervals

Collection Interval/Archive Length

CollectionFrequency Default Behavior

1 Day 5 Minutes Real-time statistics are rolled up to create one data point every 5 minutes. Theresult is 12 data points every hour and 288 data points every day. After 30minutes, the six data points collected are aggregated and rolled up as a datapoint for the 1 Week time range.You can change the interval duration and archive length of the 1 Day collectioninterval by configuring the statistics settings. See Configuring Statistics Settingsin the vSphere Client Help.

1 Week 30 Minutes 1 Day statistics are rolled up to create one data point every 30 minutes. Theresult is 48 data points every day and 336 data points every week. Every 2hours, the 12 data points collected are aggregated and rolled up as a data pointfor the 1 Month time range.You cannot change the default settings of the 1 Week collection interval.

1 Month 2 Hours 1 Week statistics are rolled up to create one data point every 2 hours. The resultis 12 data points every day and 360 data points every month (assuming a 30-day month). After 24 hours, the 12 data points collected are aggregated androlled up as a data point for the 1 Year time range.You cannot change the default settings of the 1 Month collection interval.

1 Year 1 Day 1 Month statistics are rolled up to create one data point every day. The resultis 365 data points each year.You can change the interval duration and archive length of the 1 Year collectioninterval by configuring the statistics settings. See Configuring Statistics Settingsin the vSphere Client Help.

NOTE Real-time statistics are not stored in the database. They are collected directly from an ESX/ESXi hostevery 20 seconds (60 seconds for ESX Server 2.x hosts). Statistics are saved for one hour on ESX hosts and for30 minutes on ESXi hosts. They include data counters for the ESX/ESXi host and the virtual machines availableon the hosts. They are aggregated and rolled up at different collection intervals to create historical statistics inthe vCenter database.

Data AvailabilityReal-time data appears in the performance charts only for ESX/ESXi hosts and virtual machines when they areconnected and powered on. Historical data appears for all supported inventory objects, but might beunavailable during certain circumstances.

Table 4-4 lists the scenarios in which performance charts are empty with the label "No data available." Eachscenario assumes that the default rollup configuration for the vCenter Server system has not changed.

Table 4-4. Scenarios for Unavailable Performance Data

Chart Time Range Behavior

Real time Real-time statistics are not available for disconnected hosts or powered off virtualmachines. The charts are empty with the label "No data available."

1 day The real-time statistics are collected on ESX/ESXi hosts and aggregated every 5 minutes.After six data points are collected (30 minutes), they are rolled up to the vCenter Serverdatabase to create the 1 Day statistics. 1 Day statistics might not be available for 30 minutesafter the current time, depending on when the sample period began. The charts are emptywith the label "No data available."

1 week The 1 Day statistics are rolled up to create one data point every 30 minutes. If there is a lagin the rollup operation, the 1 Week statistics might not be available for 1 hour after thecurrent time (30 minutes for the 1 Week collection interval + 30 minutes for the 1 Daycollection interval). The charts are empty with the label "No data available."


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Table 4-4. Scenarios for Unavailable Performance Data (Continued)

Chart Time Range Behavior

1 month The 1 Week statistics are rolled up to create one data point every 2 hours. If there is a lagin the rollup operations, the 1 Month statistics might not be available for 3 hours (2 hoursfor the 1 Month collection interval + 1 hour for the 1 Week collection interval). The chartsare empty with the label "No data available."

1 year The 1 Month statistics are rolled up to create one data point every day. If there is a lag inthe rollup operations, the statistics might not be available for 1 day and 3 hours (1 day forthe past year collection interval + 3 hours for the past month collection interval). Duringthis time, the charts are empty with the label "No data available."

NOTE If you select a datacenter in the inventory and the datacenter does not yet contain a host or cluster, theoverview performance data will not be available. Instead, the following message appears on the Overviewtab:No performance view is available for the given managed object."

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Working with Overview PerformanceCharts 5

The overview performance charts provide a single panel in which you view CPU, memory, disk, and networkperformance charts for the object selected in the inventory. You can view overview charts for clusters,datacenters, datastores, hosts, resource pools, and virtual machines.

You can perform the following tasks with the overview performance charts:

n View all available performance metrics for an object in one panel to easily compare different resourcestatistics, for example, CPU usage and memory usage.

n View real-time and historic data.

n View thumbnail charts for child objects.

n View the charts for a child object and a parent object. The object names in the thumbnail section are linkedto the main charts for that object.


n “Refresh Overview Performance Charts,” on page 17

n “Set the Time Range for Overview Performance Charts,” on page 17

n “View Overview Performance Charts,” on page 18

n “View Thumbnail Charts,” on page 19

Refresh Overview Performance ChartsRefreshing the overview performance charts synchronizes the chart data with the current state of the vCenterServer database.

Procedure

u

Click the refresh icon ( ).

Set the Time Range for Overview Performance ChartsYou can specify the time range for viewing performance data. The time span extends from the selected timerange to the present time.

Procedure

1 Display the object in the inventory.

2 Select the object and click the Performance tab.

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3 In Time Range, select a time range.

NOTE Real-time data is available only for hosts and virtual machines.

4 If you selected Custom, set the From and To dates and times.

View Overview Performance ChartsYou can view performance charts for CPU, disk, memory, network, and storage statistics. The charts that getdisplayed for an object depend on the current view of the Performance tab.

Prerequisites

To view overview performance charts, the vSphere Client must be connected to a vCenter Server.

Procedure



3 If the advanced performance charts appear by default, click Overview.

4 In the View list, select the charts to view.

For example, to view storage charts for a virtual machine, select Storage in the View list.

NOTE If an object has no child objects, the child view will not be available. For example, if there are novirtual machines on a selected host, the Virtual Machines view is not available for that host. In addition,if the fault tolerance functionality is disabled, the Fault Tolerance view for virtual machines will not beavailable.

Object View list items

Datacenter n Clusters – Thumbnail CPU and memory charts for each cluster, and stacked charts for total CPUand memory usage in the datacenter. This view is the default.

n Storage – Space utilization charts for datastores in the datacenter, including space by file type andstorage space used by each datastore in the datacenter.

Datastore n Storage – Space utilization charts for the datastore: space by file type, space by virtual machine,and space usage.

Cluster n Home - CPU and memory charts for the cluster.n Resource Pools & Virtual Machines – Thumbnail charts for resource pools and virtual machines,

and stacked charts for total CPU and memory usage in the cluster.n Hosts – Thumbnail charts for each host in the cluster, and stacked charts for total CPU, memory,

disk usage, and network usage.

Host n Home – CPU, memory, disk, and network charts for the host.n Virtual Machines – Thumbnail charts for virtual machines, and stacked charts for total CPU usage

and total memory usage on the host.

ResourcePool

n Home – CPU and memory charts for the resource pool.n Resource Pools & Virtual Machines – Thumbnail charts for resource pools, and virtual machines

and stacked charts for CPU and memory usage in the resource pool.

VirtualMachine

n Home – CPU, memory, network, and disk usage charts for the virtual machine.n Storage – Space utilization charts for the virtual machine: space by file type, space by datastore,

disk read/writes, total gigabytes, and disk I/O.n Fault Tolerance – CPU and memory charts that display comparative metrics for the fault-tolerant

primary and secondary virtual machines.


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View Thumbnail ChartsThumbnail charts are available for the child objects of the object selected in the inventory. For example,thumbnail charts are available for each virtual machine on a host.

Procedure

1 Select the parent object in the inventory.

2 In View, select the object for which you want to view the thumbnail charts.

By default, charts are displayed for two child objects at one time.

3 If there are more than two child objects, use the Thumbnail navigation buttons to view the additionalobject charts, or click All to view all charts at once.

NOTE You may have to scroll right in the Performance tab to see the Thumbnail navigation buttons.

4 (Optional) To open the main charts for an object in the thumbnail section, click the object's name at thetop of the chart group.

Chapter 5 Working with Overview Performance Charts

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Working with Advanced PerformanceCharts 6

The advanced performance charts provide a graphical display of statistical data for an ESX/ESXi host or objectsin the vCenter Server.

You can view advanced performance charts for datacenters, clusters, hosts, resource pools, and virtualmachines. To view charts for datastores, you must use the overview performance charts.

You can perform the following tasks with the advanced performance charts:

n Mouse-over a plotted metric to display information about a specific data point.

n Customize chart views.

n Export chart data to a spreadsheet.

n Save a chart to a picture file.

n Pop up a chart from the Performance tab.

For information on using the advanced performance charts, see the vSphere Client Help.


n “View Advanced Performance Charts,” on page 21

n “View Advanced Performance Chart Help,” on page 22

n “Set the Advanced Performance Charts as the Default,” on page 22

View Advanced Performance ChartsAdvanced performance charts display data counters that are not supported in the overview performancecharts.

Procedure



3 Click Advanced.

NOTE You cannot view advanced performance charts for datastores. You must use the overviewperformance charts to view datastore metrics.

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View Advanced Performance Chart HelpInformation about using the advanced performance charts is in the vSphere Client Help.

Procedure

1 Select Help > Help Topics in the vSphere Client.

2 Navigate to the Performance Charts section.

Set the Advanced Performance Charts as the DefaultYou can configure the vSphere Client to display the advanced performance charts by default when you open thePerformance tab. The default is to display the overview performance charts.

Procedure

1 Select Edit > Client Settings.

2 In the Tabs section of the Client Settings dialog box, select Default to Advanced Performance Charts.

3 Click OK.


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Overview Performance Charts 7The overview performance charts display the most common metrics for an object in the inventory. Use thesecharts to monitor and troubleshoot performance problems.

The metrics provided in the performance charts are a subset of those collected for ESX/ESXi hosts and thevCenter Server. To view metrics not shown, including system uptime, heartbeat, and DRS metrics, use theadvanced performance charts. (See the vSphere Client Help.) For a complete list of all metrics collected by ESX/ESXi hosts and the vCenter Server, see the vSphere API Reference.


n “Clusters,” on page 23

n “Datacenters,” on page 32

n “Datastores,” on page 35

n “Hosts,” on page 37

n “Resource Pools,” on page 57

n “vApps,” on page 60

n “Virtual Machines,” on page 63

ClustersThe cluster charts contain information about CPU, disk, memory, and network usage for clusters.

CPU (MHz)The CPU (MHz) chart displays CPU usage for the cluster.

This chart is located in the Home view of the Cluster Performance tab.

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Table 7-1. Data Counters

Chart Label Description

Usage Sum of the average CPU usage values of all virtual machines in the cluster.n Counter: usagemhzn Unit: MegaHertz (MHz)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Total Total amount of CPU resources available in the cluster. The maximum value is equal to the numberof cores multiplied by the frequency of the processors.For example, a cluster has two hosts, each of which has four CPUs that are 3GHz each, and onevirtual machine that has two virtual CPUs.VM totalmhz = 2 vCPUs × 3000MHz = 6000MHzHost totalmhz = 4 CPUs × 3000MHz = 12000MHzCluster totalmhz = 2 x 4 × 3000MHz = 24000MHzn Counter: totalmhzn Unit: MegaHertz (MHz)n Rollup Type: Summationn Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

A short spike in CPU usage indicates that you are making the best use of the host resources. However, if thevalue is constantly high, the hosts are probably overcommitted. Generally, if the CPU usage value for a virtualmachine is above 90% and the CPU ready value for a virtual machine is above 20%, performance is impacted.

If performance is impacted, consider taking the following actions.

n Verify that VMware Tools is installed on each virtual machine.

n If the cluster is not a DRS cluster, enable DRS. In Inventory > Cluster > Edit Settings, select EnableVMware DRS.

n If the cluster is a DRS cluster:

n Increase the number of hosts, and migrate one or more virtual machines onto the new host.

n Check the aggressiveness threshold. If the value is low, increase the threshold. This might help avoidhot spots in the cluster.

n Upgrade the physical CPUs or cores on each host in the cluster if necessary.

n Enable CPU-saving features, such as TCP Segmentation Offload.

n Replace software I/O with dedicated hardware, such as iSCSI HBAs or TCP Segmentation Offload NICs.

CPU UsageThe cluster CPU Usage charts monitors the CPU utilization of the hosts, resource pools, and virtual machinesin the cluster.

This chart is located in the Hosts view of the Cluster Performance tab.



<host>, <resource pool>, or<virtual machine>

Amount of CPU actively used by the host, resource pool, or virtual machine in the cluster.n Counter: usagemhzn Unit: MegaHertz (MHz)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)


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Chart Analysis











Disk (KBps)The Disk (KBps) chart displays disk usage for all hosts in a cluster.




<host> Sum of the data read from and written to all hosts in the cluster.n Counter: usagen Unit: KiloBytes per second (KBps)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

Use the disk charts to monitor average disk loads and to determine trends in disk usage. For example, youmight notice a performance degradation with applications that frequently read from and write to the harddisk. If you see a spike in the number of disk read/write requests, check if any such applications were runningat that time.

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The following disk latency data counters are the best ways to determine if your vSphere environment isexperiencing disk problems. You use the Advanced performance charts to monitor these statistics.

n The kernelLatency data counter measures the average amount of time, in milliseconds, that the VMkernelspends processing each SCSI command. For best performance, the value should be 0-1 milliseconds. If thevalue is greater than 4ms, the virtual machines on the ESX/ESXi host are trying to send more throughputto the storage system than the configuration supports. Check the CPU usage, and increase the queue depthor storage.

n The deviceLatency data counter measures the average amount of time, in milliseconds, to complete a SCSIcommand from the physical device. Depending on your hardware, a number greater than 15ms indicatesthere are probably problems with the storage array. Move the active VMDK to a volume with morespindles or add disks to the LUN.

n The queueLatency data counter measures the average amount of time taken per SCSI command in theVMkernel queue. This value must always be zero. If not, the workload is too high and the array cannotprocess the data fast enough.

If the disk latency values are high, or if you notice other problems with disk performance, consider makingthe following improvements.

n Increase the virtual machine memory. This should allow for more operating system caching, which canreduce I/O activity. Note that this may require you to also increase the host memory. Increasing memorymight reduce the need to store data because databases can utilize system memory to cache data and avoiddisk access. To verify that virtual machines have adequate memory, check swap statistics in the guestoperating system. Increase the guest memory, but not to an extent that leads to excessive host memoryswapping. Install VMware Tools so that memory ballooning can occur.

n Defragment the file systems on all guests.

n Disable antivirus on-demand scans on the VMDK and VMEM files.

n Use the vendor's array tools to determine the array performance statistics. When too many serverssimultaneously access common elements on an array, the disks might have trouble keeping up. Considerarray-side improvements to increase throughput.

n Use Storage VMotion to migrate I/O-intensive virtual machines across multiple ESX/ESXi hosts.

n Balance the disk load across all physical resources available. Spread heavily used storage across LUNsthat are accessed by different adapters. Use separate queues for each adapter to improve disk efficiency.

n Configure the HBAs and RAID controllers for optimal use. Verify that the queue depths and cache settingson the RAID controllers are adequate. If not, increase the number of outstanding disk requests for thevirtual machine by adjusting the Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding parameter. For more information, see theFibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide.

n For resource-intensive virtual machines, separate the virtual machine's physical disk drive from the drivewith the system page file. This alleviates disk spindle contention during periods of high use.

n On systems with sizable RAM, disable memory trimming by adding the line MemTrimRate=0 to the virtualmachine's .VMX file.

n If the combined disk I/O is higher than a single HBA capacity, use multipathing or multiple links.

n For ESXi hosts, create virtual disks as preallocated. When you create a virtual disk for a guest operatingsystem, select Allocate all disk space now. The performance degradation associated with reassigningadditional disk space does not occur, and the disk is less likely to become fragmented.

n Use the most current ESX/ESXi host hardware.


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Memory (MB)The Memory (MB) chart displays consumed memory for the cluster.




Consumed Amount of host machine memory used by all powered on virtual machines in the cluster. A cluster'sconsumed memory consists of virtual machine consumed memory and overhead memory. It doesnot include host-specific overhead memory, such as memory used by the service console orVMkernel.n Counter: consumedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Total Total amount of machine memory of all hosts in the cluster that is available for virtual machinememory (physical memory for use by the Guest OS) and virtual machine overhead memory.Memory Total = Aggregate host machine memory - (VMkernel memory + Service Console memory+ other service memory)

NOTE The totalmb data counter is the same as the effectivemem data counter, which is supportedonly for backward compatibility.

n Counter: totalmbn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

Memory usage is not an indicator of performance problems. Memory can be high if the host is swapping orballooning, which can result in virtual machine guest swapping. In such cases, check for other problems, suchas CPU over-commitment or storage latencies.

If you have constantly hig memory usage in a cluster, resource pool, or vApp, consider taking the followingactions.

n Refer to the chart analysis troubleshooting information for hosts and virtual machines to detect problemswith those entities.


n The balloon driver is installed with VMware Tools and is critical to performance. Verify that the balloondriver is enabled. The VMkernel regularly reclaims unused virtual machine memory by ballooning andswapping. Generally, this does not impact virtual machine performance.

If the balloon value is high, check the resource shares, reservation, and limit of the virtual machines andresource pools on the hosts. Verify that the host's settings are adequate and not lower than those set forthe virtual machine. If there is free memory on the hosts and the virtual machines are experiencing highswap or balloon memory, the virtual machine (or resource pool, if it belongs to one) has reached its resourcelimit. Check the maximum resource limit set on that host.



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n Add more physical memory to one or more hosts.

Memory (MB)The Memory (MB) chart displays memory data counters for clusters.


NOTE These data counter definitions are for hosts. At the cluster level, the values are collected and totaled.The counter values in the chart represent the aggregate amounts of the host data.The counters that appear inthe chart depend on the collection level set for your vCenter Server.



Active Sum of the active guest physical memory of all powered on virtual machines on the host,plus memory used by basic VMkernel applications. Active memory is estimated by theVMkernel.n Counter: activen Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)

Balloon Sum of the guest physical memory reclaimed by the balloon driver for all powered onvirtual machines on the host.n Counter: vmmemctln Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Consumed Amount of machine memory used on the host.Consumed memory includes virtual machine memory, service console memory, andVMkernel memory.consumed memory = total host memory - free host memoryn Counter: consumedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Granted Sum of the guest physical memory granted for all powered on virtual machines. Grantedmemory is mapped to the host's machine memory.Granted memory for a host includes the shared memory of each virtual machine on thehost.n Counter: grantedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)


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Table 7-5. Data Counters (Continued)


Swap Used Sum of the memory swapped by all powered on virtual machines on the host.n Counter: swapusedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)

Total Aggregate total memory available to the cluster.n Counter: totalmbn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

Host memory must be large enough to accommodate the workload of the virtual machine. Transient high-usage values usually do not cause performance degradation. For example, memory usage can be high whenseveral virtual machines are started at the same time or when there is a spike in virtual machine workload.

However, a consistently high memory usage value (94% or greater) indicates that the host memory is probablyovercommitted. If the active memory size is the same as the granted memory size, memory is alsoovercommitted. If the active memory is consistently low, the memory size might be too large.

If the memory usage value is high, and the host has high ballooning or swapping, check the amount of freephysical memory on the host. A free memory value of 6% or less indicates that the host is overcommitted.

If the host is not overcommitted, check the resource shares, reservation, and limit settings of the virtualmachines and resource pools on the host. Verify that the host settings are adequate and not lower than thoseset for the virtual machines.

If the host memory is overcommitted or you notice a degredation in performance, consider taking the followingactions.



n Reduce the memory space on the virtual machine and correct the cache size if it is too large. This frees upmemory for other virtual machines.

n If the memory reservation of a virtual machine is set to a value much higher than its active memory,decrease the reservation setting so that the VMkernel can reclaim the idle memory for other virtualmachines on the host.

n Migrate one or more virtual machines to a host in a DRS cluster.

n Add physical memory to the host.

Memory ConsumedThe Memory Consumed chart displays memory usage for child objects in a cluster.

For resource pools and virtual machines in a cluster, this chart is located in the Resource Pools & VirtualMachines view of the Cluster Performance tab. For hosts in a cluster, this chart is located in the Hosts viewof the Cluster Performance tab.


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<resource pool>,<virtual machine>,or <host>

Amount of machine memory used by all resource pools and virtual machines in the cluster or by allhosts in the cluster, depending on the cluster view.Consumed memory includes virtual machine memory, service console memory, and VMkernelmemory.consumed memory = total host memory - free host memoryn Counter: consumedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis












Network (Mbps)The Network (Mbps) chart displays network speed for hosts in a cluster.



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<host> Average rate at which data is transmitted and received across all NIC instances on the host.n Counter: usagen Unit: Megabits per second (Mbps)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

Network performance is dependent on application workload and network configuration. Dropped networkpackets indicate a bottleneck in the network. To determine whether packets are being dropped, use esxtop orthe advanced performance charts to examine the droppedTx and droppedRx network counter values.

If packets are being dropped, adjust the virtual machine shares. If packets are not being dropped, check thesize of the network packets and the data receive and transfer rates. In general, the larger the network packets,the faster the network speed. When the packet size is large, fewer packets are transferred, which reduces theamount of CPU required to process the data. When network packets are small, more packets are transferredbut the network speed is slower because more CPU is required to process the data.

NOTE In some instances, large packets can result in high network latency. To check network latency, use theVMware AppSpeed performance monitoring application or a third-party application.

If packets are not being dropped and the data receive rate is slow, the host might be experiencing CPUovercommitment. Check the number of virtual machines assigned to each physical NIC. If necessary, performload balancing by moving virtual machines to different vSwitches or by adding more NICs to the host. Youcan also move virtual machines to another host or increase the host CPU or virtual machine CPU.

If you experience network-related performance problems, also consider taking the following actions.


n If virtual machines running on the same ESX/ESXi host communicate with each other, connect them tothe same vSwitch to avoid the cost of transferring packets over the physical network.

n Assign each physical NIC to a port group and a vSwitch.

n Use separate physical NICs to handle the different traffic streams, such as network packets generated byvirtual machines, iSCSI protocols, VMotion tasks, and service console activities.

n Ensure that the physical NIC capacity is large enough to handle the network traffic on that vSwitch. If thecapacity is not enough, consider using a high-bandwidth physical NIC (10Gbps) or moving some virtualmachines to a vSwitch with a lighter load or to a new vSwitch.

n If packets are being dropped at the vSwitch port, increase the virtual network driver ring buffers whereapplicable.

n Verify that the reported speed and duplex settings for the physical NIC match the hardware expectationsand that the hardware is configured to run at its maximum capability. For example, verify that NICs with1Gbps are not reset to 100Mbps because they are connected to an older switch.

n Verify that all NICs are running in full duplex mode. Hardware connectivity issues might result in a NICresetting itself to a lower speed or half duplex mode.

n Use vNICs that are TSO-capable, and verify that TSO-Jumbo Frames are enabled where possible.

n If possible, use vmxnet3 NIC drivers, which are available with VMware Tools. They are optimized forhigh performance.


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DatacentersThe datacenter charts contain information about CPU, disk, memory, and storage usage for datacenters.

CPU (MHz)The CPU (MHz) chart displays CPU usage for clusters in the datacenter.

This chart is located in the Clusters view of the Datacenter Performance tab.



<cluster> Amount of CPU currently in use by the cluster. The active CPU usage is approximately equal to theratio of the used CPU cycles to the available CPU cycles.The maximum possible value is the frequency of the processors multiplied by the number of cores. Forexample, a two-way SMP virtual machine using 4000MHz on a host that has four 2GHz processors isusing 50% of the CPU (4000 / 4 × 2000) = 0.5).n Counter: usagemhzn Unit: MegaHertz (MHz)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis











Memory (MB)The Memory (MB) chart displays CPU usage for all clusters in the datacenter.

This chart is located in the Clusters view of the Datacenter Performance tab.


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<cluster> Amount of host machine memory used by all powered on virtual machines in the cluster.n Counter: consumedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

A cluster's consumed memory consists of virtual machine consumed memory and overhead memory. It doesnot include host-specific overhead memory, such as memory used by the service console or VMkernel.

If you experience problems with cluster memory usage, use the thumbnail cluster charts to examine memoryusage for each cluster and increase memory resources if needed. Use the links on each cluster

If the cluster is a DRS cluster, check the aggressiveness threshold. If the value is low, increase the threshold.Increasing the threshold might help avoid hot spots in the cluster.

Space used in GBThe Space in GB chart displays used datastore space in the datacenter.

This chart is located in the Storage view of the Datacenter Performance tab.



<datastore> Amount of used storage space on the 10 datastores with the most used space.n Counter: usedn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

The datastore is at full capacity when the used space is equal to the capacity. Allocated space can be largerthan datastore capacity, for example, when you have snapshots and thin-provisioned disks. You can provisionmore space to the datastore if possible, or you can add disks to the datastore or use shared datastores.

If snapshot files are consuming a lot of datastore space, consider consolidating them to the virtual disk whenthey are no longer needed. Consolidating the snapshots deletes the redo log files and removes the snapshotsfrom the vSphere Client user interface. For information on consolidating the datacenter, see the vSphere ClientHelp.

Space Utilization By File TypeThe Space Utilization By File Type chart displays datastore space usage. It displays real-time statistics only.

This chart is located in the Storage view of the Datacenter Performance tab.


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File Type Description

Virtual Disks Amount of disk space used by virtual disk files.Virtual disk files store the contents of the virtual machine's hard disk drive, including informationthat you write to a virtual machine's hard disk - the operating system, program files, and data files.The files have the extension .vmdk and appear as a physical disk drive to a guest operating system.

NOTE Delta disks, which also have an extension .vmdk, are not included in this file type.

n Counter: usedn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1 (4)

Swap Files Amount of disk space used by swap files.Swap files back up the virtual machine's physical memory.n Counter: usedn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1 (4)

Snapshots Amount of disk space used by virtual machine snapshot files.Snapshot files store information about virtual machine snapshots. They include snapshot state filesand delta disk files. A snapshot state file stores the running state of the virtual machine at the time ofthe snapshot. It has the extension .vmsn. A delta disk file stores the updates made by the virtualmachine to the virtual disks after a snapshot is taken.n Counter: usedn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1 (4)

Other VM Files Amount of disk space used by all other virtual machine files, such as configuration files and log files.n Counter: usedn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1 (4)

Other Amount of disk space used by all other non-virtual machine files, such as documentation files andbackup files.

Free Space Amount of disk space not currently in use.

Total Space Amount of disk space available to the datastore. This is the datastore capacity.total space = (virtual disk space + swap file space + snapshot space + other VM file space + other space)+ free space

Chart Analysis




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DatastoresThe datastore charts contain information about disk usage for datastores.

Space in GBThe Space in GB chart displays space usage data counters for datastores.

This chart is located in the Home view of the Datastore Performance tab.



Allocated Amount of physical space provisioned by an administrator for the datastore. It is the storage size upto which files on the datastore can grow. Allocated space is not always in use.n Counter: provisionedn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1

Used Amount of physical datastore space in use.n Counter: usedn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1

Capacity Maximum capacity of the datastore.capacity = virtual machine file space + non-virtual machine file space + free space

NOTE Storage data is collected and updated in the overview charts every 30 minutes. Therefore, ifyou refresh the datastore, the capacity value might only be updated in the datastore Summary tab,and not in the overview charts.

n Counter: capacityn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1

Chart Analysis



Space Utilization By File TypeThe Space Utilization by File Type chart displays space used by different file types on the the datastore. Thischart does not show historical statistics. It only shows the most recently available data, which may be up to 30minutes late, depending on when the last rollup occurred.



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Chart Analysis




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Space Utilization by Virtual MachineThe Space Utilization by Virtual Machine chart displays the space used by the virtual machines on the datastore.This chart does not show historical statistics. It only shows the most recently available data, which may be upto 30 minutes late, depending on when the last rollup occurred.




<virtual machine> Amount of datastore space used by the five virtual machines with the most useddatastore space.n Counter: usedn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis



HostsThe hosts charts contain information about CPU, disk, memory, network, and storage usage for hosts.

CPU (%)The CPU (%) chart displays CPU usage for the host.

This chart is located in the Home view of the Host Performance tab.



Usage Actively used CPU of the host, as a percentage of the total available CPU.Active CPU is approximately equal to the ratio of the used CPU to the availableCPU.Available CPU = # of physical CPUs × clock rate.100% represents all CPUs on the host. For example, if a four-CPU host is runninga virtual machine with two CPUs, and the usage is 50%, the host is using twoCPUs completely.n Counter: usagen Unit: Percentage (%)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)


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Chart Analysis

A short spike in CPU usage indicates that you are making the best use of the host resources. However, if thevalue is constantly high, the host is likely overcommitted. The best indicator of host overcommitment is theCPU load. If the load is high, consider taking the following actions.

n Set the CPU reservations for all high-priority virtual machines to guarantee that they receive the CPUcycles required.

n Reduce virtual CPU count for guests to only the number required to execute the workload. For example,a single-threaded application on a four-way guest only benefits from a single vCPU. But the hypervisor'smaintenance of the three idle vCPUs takes CPU cycles that could be used for other work.

n Add the host to a DRS cluster if it is not already in one. If the host is in a DRS cluster, increase the numberof hosts and migrate one or more virtual machines onto the new host.

n Upgrade the physical CPUs or cores on the host if necessary.

n Use the newest version of ESX/ESXi, and enable CPU-saving features such as TCP Segmentation Offload,large memory pages, and jumbo frames.

n Verify that VMware Tools is installed on every virtual machine on the host.

CPU (MHz)The CPU (MHz) chart displays CPU usage for the host.




Usage The sum, in megahertz, of the actively used CPU of all powered on virtual machineson a host.The maximum possible value is the frequency of the processors multiplied by thenumber of processors. For example, if you have a host with four 2GHz CPUsrunning a virtual machine that is using 4000MHz, the host is using two CPUscompletely.4000 / (4 × 2000) = 0.50n Counter: usagemhzn Unit: MegaHertz (MHz)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

A short spike in CPU usage indicates that you are making the best use of the host resources. However, if thevalue is constantly high, the host is likely overcommitted. The best indicator of host overcommitment is theCPU load. If the load is high, consider taking the following actions.

n Set the CPU reservations for all high-priority virtual machines to guarantee that they receive the CPUcycles required.

n Reduce virtual CPU count for guests to only the number required to execute the workload. For example,a single-threaded application on a four-way guest only benefits from a single vCPU. But the hypervisor'smaintenance of the three idle vCPUs takes CPU cycles that could be used for other work.

n Add the host to a DRS cluster if it is not already in one. If the host is in a DRS cluster, increase the numberof hosts and migrate one or more virtual machines onto the new host.



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n Use the newest version of ESX/ESXi, and enable CPU-saving features such as TCP Segmentation Offload,large memory pages, and jumbo frames.


CPU UsageThe CPU Usage chart displays CPU usage of all virtual machines on a host.

This chart is located in the Virtual Machines view of the Host Performance tab.



<virtual machine> Amount of CPU actively used by each virtual machine on the host. 100% represents all CPUs.For example, a virtual machine has one virtual CPU and is running on a host with four CPUs.100% means that this virtual machine is using one CPU resource.usage = usagemhz / (number of virtual CPUs × core frequency)n Counter: usagen Unit: Percentage (%). Precision is to 1/100%. A value between 0 and 100.n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

A short spike in CPU usage or CPU ready indicates that you are making the best use of the virtual machineresources. However, if the CPU usage value for a virtual machine is above 90% and the CPU ready value isabove 20%, performance is being impacted.


n Compare the virtual machine's CPU usage value with the CPU usage of the other virtual machines on thehost or in the resource pool. The stacked bar chart on the host's Virtual Machine view shows the CPUusage for all virtual machines on the host.

n Determine whether the high ready time for the virtual machine resulted from its CPU usage time reachingthe CPU limit setting. If so, increase the CPU limit on the virtual machine.

n Increase the CPU shares to give the virtual machine more opportunities to run. The total ready time onthe host might remain at the same level if the host system is constrained by CPU. If the host ready timedoesn't decrease, set the CPU reservations for high-priority virtual machines to guarantee that they receivethe required CPU cycles.

n Increase the amount of memory allocated to the virtual machine. This decreases disk and or networkactivity for applications that cache. This might lower disk I/O and reduce the need for the ESX/ESXi hostto virtualize the hardware. Virtual machines with smaller resource allocations generally accumulate moreCPU ready time.

n Reduce the virtual CPU count for guests to only the number required to execute the workload. Forexample, a single-threaded application on a four-way guest only benefits from a single vCPU. But thehypervisor's maintenance of the three idle vCPUs takes CPU cycles that could be used for other work.

n If the host is not already in a DRS cluster, add it to one. If the host is in a DRS cluster, increase the numberof hosts and migrate one or more virtual machines onto the new host.




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Disk (KBps)The Disk (KBps) chart displays host disk usage.




Usage Sum of the data read from and written to all LUNs on the host.n Counter: usagen Unit: KiloBytes per second (KBps)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis













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Disk Rate (KBps)The Disk Rate chart displays disk read and write rates for luns on a host, including average rates.




Read Rate at which data is read from each LUN on the host.Read rate = blocksRead/second × blockSizen Counter: readn Unit: KiloBytes per second (KBps)n Rollup Type: Averagen Collection Level: 2

Write Rate at which data is written to each LUN on the host.Write rate = blocksWritten/second × blockSizen Counter: writen Unit: KiloBytes per second (KBps)n Rollup Type: Averagen Collection Level: 2

Chart Analysis



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Disk Requests (Number)The Disk Requests chart displays disk usage for the host.




Read Requests Number of times data was read from each LUN on the host.n Counter: numberReadn Unit: Numbern Rollup Type: Summationn Collection Level: 3

Write Requests Number of times data was written to each LUN on the host.n numberWriten Unit: Numbern Rollup Type: Summationn Collection Level: 3

Chart Analysis











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Disk (ms)The Disk (ms) chart displays the amount of time taken to process commands on a host.




Maximum Latency Highest latency value of all disks used by the host.Latency measures the time used to process a SCSI command issued by the guest OS to the virtualmachine. The kernel latency is the time VMkernel takes to process an I/O request. The device latencyis the time it takes the hardware to handle the request.Total latency = Sum of kernelLatency + deviceLatency.n Counter: maxTotalLatencyn Unit: Milliseconds (ms)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis



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Disk (KBps)The Disk (KBps) chart displays disk usage for all virtual machines on a host.




<virtual machine> Sum of the data read from the virtual machine.n Counter: usagen Unit: KiloBytes per second (KBps)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis













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Memory (%)The Memory (%) chart displays host memory usage.


NOTE Machine memory refers to the physical RAM in the ESX/ESXi host.



Usage Amount of machine memory currently in use on the host.memory usage = memory consumed / host machine memory sizen Counter: usagen Unit: Percentage (%)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis






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Memory (Balloon)The Memory (Balloon) chart displays balloon memory on a host.




Balloon Sum of the guest physical memory reclaimed by the balloon driver for all powered on virtualmachines on the host.n Counter: vmmemctln Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

To ensure best performance, host memory must be large enough to accommodate the active memory of thevirtual machines. Note that the active memory may be smaller than the virtual machine memory size. Thisallows you to over-provision memory, but still ensure the virtual machine active memory is smaller than thehost memory.

Transient high-usage values usually do not cause performance degradation. For example, memory usage canbe high when several virtual machines are started at the same time or when there is a spike in virtual machineworkload.

However, a consistently high memory usage value (94% or greater) indicates that there is little room foradditional memory usage. In such cases, an increase in memory usage may cause ballooning or swapping,which might degrade performance.

If the memory usage value is high, and the host has high ballooning or swapping, check the amount of freephysical memory on the host. A free memory value of 6% or less indicates that the host is under memorypressure. This leads to memory reclamation, which may degrade performance.

If the host has enough free memory, check the resource shares, reservation, and limit settings of the virtualmachines and resource pools on the host. Verify that the host settings are adequate and not lower than thoseset for the virtual machines.


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n Verify that VMware Tools is installed on each virtual machine. The balloon driver is installed with VMwareTools and is critical to performance.

n Verify that the balloon driver is enabled. The VMkernel regularly reclaims unused virtual machinememory by ballooning and swapping. Generally, this does not impact virtual machine performance.

n Reduce the memory space on the virtual machine, and correct the cache size if it is too large. This frees upmemory for other virtual machines.




Memory (MBps)The Memory (MBps) chart displays the swap in and swap out rates for a host.

This chart is located on the Home view of the Host Performance tab.



swapinRate Average rate at which memory is swapped into the host.n Counter: swapinRaten Unit: MegaBytes per second (MBps)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

swapoutRate Average rate at which memory is swapped out of the host.n Counter: swapoutRaten Unit: MegaBytes per second (MBps)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

Host memory must be large enough to accommodate virtual machine workload. Transient high-usage valuesusually do not cause performance degradation. For example, memory usage can be high when several virtualmachines are started at the same time or when there is a spike in virtual machine workload.

However, a consistently high memory usage value (94% or greater) indicates that the host memory is probablyovercommitted. If the memory balloon and swap values are not high, performance is probably not affected. Ifthe memory usage value is high, and the host has high ballooning or swapping, check the amount of freephysical memory on the host. A free memory value of 6% or less indicates that the host is overcommitted.



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Memory (MB)The Memory (MB) chart displays memory data counters for hosts.


NOTE Guest physical memory refers to the virtual hardware memory presented to a virtual machine for itsguest operating system. Machine memory is the actual physical RAM in the ESX/ESXi host.

Not all counters are collected at collection level 1.



Active Sum of the active guest physical memory of all powered on virtual machines on the host,plus memory used by basic VMKernel applications. Active memory is estimated by theVMkernel and is based on the current workload of the host.n Counter: activen Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)

Balloon Sum of the guest physical memory reclaimed by the balloon driver for all powered onvirtual machines on the host.n Counter: vmmemctln Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Balloon Target Sum of the balloon target memory of all powered on virtual machines on the host.If the balloon target value is greater than the balloon value, the VMkernel inflates theballoon, causing more virtual machine memory to be reclaimed. If the balloon targetvalue is less than the balloon value, the VMkernel deflates the balloon, which allows thevirtual machine to consume additional memory if needed.Virtual machines initiate memory reallocation. Therefore, it is possible to have a balloontarget value of 0 and a balloon value greater than 0.n Counter: vmmemctltargetn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)


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Consumed Amount of machine memory used on the host.Consumed memory includes virtual machine memory, service console memory, andVMkernel memory.consumed memory = total host memory - free host memoryn Counter: consumedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Granted Sum of the guest physical memory granted for all powered on virtual machines. Grantedmemory is mapped to the host's machine memory.Granted memory for a host includes the shared memory of each virtual machine on thehost.n Counter: grantedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)

Shared Common Amount of machine memory shared by all powered on virtual machines.Shared common memory consists of the entire pool of memory from which sharing ispossible, including the amount of physical RAM required by the guest memory.memory shared - memory shared common = amount of memory saved on the host fromsharingn Counter: sharedcommonn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)

Swap Used Sum of the memory swapped by all powered on virtual machines on the host.n Counter: swapusedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)

Chart Analysis






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Memory UsageThe Memory Usage chart displays host memory usage.


NOTE Guest physical memory refers to the virtual hardware memory presented to a virtual machine for itsguest operating system.



Usage Amount of guest physical memory currently in use on the virtual machine.memory usage = memory active / virtual machine physical memory sizen Counter: usagen Unit: Percentage (%)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

A virtual machine's memory size must be slightly larger than the average guest memory usage. This enablesthe host to accommodate workload spikes without swapping memory among guests. Increasing the virtualmachine memory size results in more overhead memory usage.

If there is sufficient swap space, a high balloon value is not a performance issue. However, if the swapin andswapout values for the host are large, the host memory is likely overcommitted.

If a virtual machine has high ballooning or swapping, check the amount of free physical memory on the host.The host might be overcommitted. If the active memory size is the same as the granted memory size, memoryis overcommitted. If the active memory is consistently low, the memory size might be too large.

If the host is not overcommitted, check the resource shares, reservation, and limit of the virtual machines andresource pools on the host. Verify that the host settings are adequate and not lower than those set for the virtualmachine.


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If memory usage is high or you notice degredation in performance, consider taking the following actions.


n Verify that the balloon driver is enabled. The balloon driver is installed with VMware Tools and is criticalto performance. The VMkernel regularly reclaims unused virtual machine memory by ballooning andswapping. Generally, this does not impact virtual machine performance.


n If the memory reservation of the virtual machine is set to a value much higher than its active memory,decrease the reservation setting so that the VMkernel can reclaim the idle memory for other virtualmachines on the host.



Network (Mbps)The Network (Mbps) chart displays network usage for the host.



Usage Sum of the data transmitted and received across all NIC instances connected to the host.n Counter: usagen Unit: Megabits per second (Mbps)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis










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Network Rate (Mbps)The Network Rate chart displays network bandwidth on a host.

The Network Data Transmitted/Received chart for hosts is located in the Home view of the Host Performancetab.



Data Receive Rate Rate at which data is received across each physical NIC instance on the host. Thisrepresents the bandwidth of the network.n Counter: receivedn Unit: Megabits per second (Mbps)n Rollup Type: Averagen Collection Level: 2 (4)

Data Transmit Rate Rate at which data is transmitted across each physical NIC instance on the host. Thisrepresents the bandwidth of the network.n Counter: transmittedn Unit: Megabits per second (Mbps)n Rollup Type: Averagen Collection Level: 2 (4)

Chart Analysis





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Network Packets (Number)The Network Packets chart displays the network bandwith on a host.




Packets Received Number of network packets received across each physical NIC instance on the host.n Counter: packetRxn Unit: Numbern Rollup Type: Summationn Collection Level: 3

Packets Transmitted Number of network packets transmitted across each physical NIC instance on the host.n Counter: packetTxn Unit: Numbern Rollup Type: Summationn Collection Level: 3

Chart Analysis



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Network (Mbps)The Network (Mbps) monitors network usage for all virtual machines on a host.




<virtual machine> Sum of the data transmitted and received across all virtual NIC instances connected to thevirtual machine.n Counter: usagen Unit: Megabits per second (Mbps)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)


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Chart Analysis
















Resource PoolsThe resource pool charts contain information about CPU and memory usage for resource pools.

CPU (MHz)The CPU (MHz) chart displays CPU usage in the resource pool.

This chart is located in the Home view of the Resource Pool Performance tab.


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Counters



Usage Amount of CPU used by all virtual machines in the resource pool.CPU usage is the sum of the average CPU usage values of the virtual machines in the resource poolor vApp.CPU usage = number of cores × CPU frequencyn Counter: usagemhzn Unit: MegaHertz (MHz)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

A short spike in CPU usage indicates that you are making the best use of the virtual machine and host resources.However, if the value is constantly high, the hosts are probably overcommitted. Generally, if the CPU usagevalue for a virtual machine is above 90% and the CPU ready value for a virtual machine is above 20%,performance is impacted.



n Deploy single-threaded applications on uniprocessor virtual machines instead of SMP virtual machines.

n Migrate one or more virtual machines onto a new host.

n Upgrade the physical CPUs or cores on each host if necessary.



CPU UsageThe CPU Usage chart displays CPU usage of each virtual machine in the resource pool.

This chart is located in the Resource Pools & Virtual Machines view of the Resource Pool Performance tab.



<virtual machine> Amount of CPU actively used by each virtual machine.n Counter: usagemhzn Unit: MegaHertz (MHz)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

Consistently high CPU usage values indicate that virtual machines are overloaded. If virtual machines areoverloaded, consider taking the following actions.





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n Enable the newest version of ESX/ESXi and the CPU-saving features, such as TCP Segmentation Offload,large memory pages, and jumbo frames.


Memory (MB)The Memory (MB) chart displays memory usage in the resource pool.

This chart is located in the Home view of the Resource Pool Performance tab.



<resource pool> or<vApp>

Sum of the active memory used by all virtual machines in the resource pool or vApp. Active memoryis determined by the VMkernel and includes overhead memory.memory usage = active memory / configured virtual machine memory sizen Counter: usedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Averagen Collection Level: 1

Chart Analysis












Memory ConsumedThe Memory Consumed chart displays the memory performance of all virtual machines in the resource pool.

This chart is located in the Resource Pools & Virtual Machines view of the Resource Pool Performance tab.


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<virtual machine> Amount of host memory used by the virtual machine for its guest operating system's physicalmemory. Memory overhead is not included in consumed memory.consumed memory = memory granted - memory saved from page sharingFor example, if a virtual machine has 100MB of memory that is shared equally with three othervirtual machines, it's portion of the shared memory is 25MB (100MB / 4 VMs). This amount iscounted in the memory consumed data counter.n Counter: consumedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis












vAppsThe vApp charts contain information about CPU and memory usage for vApps.

CPU (MHz)The CPU (MHz) chart displays CPU usage in the vApp.

This chart is located in the Home view of the vApp Performance tab.


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Counters



Usage Amount of CPU used by all virtual machines in the resource pool.CPU usage is the sum of the average CPU usage values of the virtual machines in the resource poolor vApp.CPU usage = number of cores × CPU frequencyn Counter: usagemhzn Unit: MegaHertz (MHz)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

A short spike in CPU usage indicates that you are making the best use of the virtual machine and host resources.However, if the value is constantly high, the hosts are probably overcommitted. Generally, if the CPU usagevalue for a virtual machine is above 90% and the CPU ready value for a virtual machine is above 20%,performance is impacted.



n Deploy single-threaded applications on uniprocessor virtual machines instead of SMP virtual machines.





CPU UsageThe CPU Usage chart displays CPU usage of each virtual machine in the vApp.

This chart is located in the Virtual Machines view of the vApp. Performance tab.



<virtual machine> Amount of CPU actively used by each virtual machine.n Counter: usagemhzn Unit: MegaHertz (MHz)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

Consistently high CPU usage values indicate that virtual machines are overloaded. If virtual machines areoverloaded, consider taking the following actions.





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n Enable the newest version of ESX/ESXi and the CPU-saving features, such as TCP Segmentation Offload,large memory pages, and jumbo frames.


Memory (MB)The Memory (MB) chart displays memory usage in the vApp.

This chart is located in the Home view of the vApp Performance tab.



<resource pool> or<vApp>

Sum of the active memory used by all virtual machines in the resource pool or vApp. Active memoryis determined by the VMkernel and includes overhead memory.memory usage = active memory / configured virtual machine memory sizen Counter: usedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Averagen Collection Level: 1

Chart Analysis












Memory ConsumedThe Memory Consumed chart displays the memory performance of each virtual machine in the vApp.

This chart is located in the Virtual Machines view of the vApp Performance tab.


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<virtual machine> Amount of host memory used by the virtual machine for its guest operating system's physicalmemory. Memory overhead is not included in consumed memory.consumed memory = memory granted - memory saved from page sharingFor example, if a virtual machine has 100MB of memory that is shared equally with three othervirtual machines, it's portion of the shared memory is 25MB (100MB / 4 VMs). This amount iscounted in the memory consumed data counter.n Counter: consumedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis












Virtual MachinesThe virtual machine charts contain information about CPU, disk, memory, network, storage, and fault tolerancefor virtual machines.

CPU (%)The CPU (%) chart displays virtual machine CPU usage and ready values.

This chart is located in the Home view of the Virtual Machine Performance tab.


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ChartLabel

Description

Usage Amount of actively used virtual CPU as a percentage of total available CPU.CPU usage is the average CPU utilization over all available virtual CPUs in the virtual machine.For example, if a virtual machine with one virtual CPU is running on a host that has four physical CPUs andthe CPU usage is 100%, the virtual machine is using one physical CPU completely.virtual CPU usage = usagemhz / (number of virtual CPUs × core frequency)

NOTE This is the host's view of the CPU usage, not the guest operating system view.

n Counter: usagen Unit: Percentage (%). Precision is to 1/100%. A value between 0 and 100.n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Ready Percentage of time that the virtual machine was ready, but could not get scheduled to run on the physicalCPU.CPU ready time is dependent on the number of virtual machines on the host and their CPU loads.n Counter: readyn Unit: Percentage (%)n Rollup Type: Summationn Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis












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CPU Usage (MHz)The CPU Usage (MHz) chart displays virtual machine CPU usage.




Usage Amount of actively used virtual CPU.

NOTE This is the host's view of the CPU usage, not the guest operating system view.

n Counter: usagen Unit: MegaHertz (MHz)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis











Disk (KBps)The Disk (KBps) chart displays disk usage for the virtual machine.

It is located in the Home view of the Virtual Machine Performance tab.


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Usage Sum of the data read from and written to all virtual disks on the virtual machine.n Counter: usagen Unit: KiloBytes per second (KBps)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis















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Disk Rate (KBps)The Disk Rate chart displays disk usage for the virtual machine.

This chart is located in the Home view of the Virtual Machine Performance tab. It is available only at collectionlevels 3 and 4.



Read Rate at which data is read from each virtual disk on the virtual machine.Read rate = blocksRead/second × blockSizen Counter: readn Unit: KiloBytes per second (KBps)n Rollup Type: Averagen Collection Level: 2

Write Rate at which data is written to each virtual disk on the virtual machine.Write rate = blocksWritten/second × blockSizen Counter: writen Unit: KiloBytes per second (KBps)n Rollup Type: Averagen Collection Level: 2

Chart Analysis



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Disk Requests (Number)The Disk Requests chart displays disk usage for the virtual machine.

This chart is located in the Storage view of the Virtual Machine Performance tab. It is available only at collectionlevels 3 and 4.



Read Requests Number of times data was read from each virtual disk on the virtual machine.n Counter: numberReadn Unit: Numbern Rollup Type: Summationn Collection Level: 3

Write Requests Number of times data was written to each virtual disk on the virtual machine.n numberWriten Unit: Numbern Rollup Type: Summationn Collection Level: 3

Chart Analysis










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Memory (%)The Memory (%) chart monitors virtual machine memory usage.


NOTE Guest physical memory refers to the virtual hardware memory presented to a virtual machine for itsguest operating system.



Usage Amount of guest physical memory currently in use on the virtual machine.memory usage = memory active / virtual machine physical memory sizen Counter: usagen Unit: Percentage (%)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis





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Memory (MB)The Memory (MB) chart displays virtual machine balloon memory.




Balloon Amount of guest physical memory reclaimed from the virtual machine by the balloon driver.n Counter: vmmemctln Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis


If there is sufficient swap space, a high balloon value is not a performance issue. However, if the swapin andswapout values for the host are large, the host memory is probably experiencing memory pressure and mightbe overcommitted.

If a virtual machine has high ballooning or swapping, check the amount of free physical memory on the host.If the host is not overcommitted, check the resource shares, reservation, and limit of the virtual machines andresource pools on the host. Verify that the host settings are adequate and not lower than those set for the virtualmachine.






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Memory (MBps)The Memory (MBps) chart displays virtual machine memory swap rates.




swapinRate Average rate at which memory is swapped into the virtual machine.n Counter: swapinRaten Unit: MegaBytes per second (MBps)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

swapoutRate Average rate at which memory is swapped out of the virtual machine.n Counter: swapoutRaten Unit: MegaBytes per second (MBps)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis


If there is sufficient swap space, a high balloon value is not a performance issue. However, if the swapin andswapout values for the host are large, the host memory is probably overcommitted.

If a virtual machine has high ballooning or swapping, check the amount of free physical memory on the host.The host might be overcommitted. If the host is not overcommitted, check the resource shares, reservation,and limit of the virtual machines and resource pools on the host. Verify that the host settings are adequate andnot lower than those set for the virtual machine.

If memory usage is high or you notice degredation in performance, consider taking the following actions:








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Memory (MB)The Memory (MB) chart displays memory data counters for virtual machines.

This chart is located in the Home view of the Virtual Machine Performance tab. It appears only at collectionlevels 2, 3, and 4.

In the descriptions below, guest physical memory refers to the virtual-hardware memory presented to a virtualmachine for its guest operating system. Machine memory is actual physical RAM in the ESX/ESXi host. Notethat not all counters are collected at collection level 1.



Active Amount of guest physical memory in use by the virtual machine.Active memory is estimated by VMkernel statistical sampling and represents the actual amountof memory the virtual machine needs. The value is based on the current workload of the virtualmachine.n Counter: activen Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)

Balloon Amount of guest physical memory reclaimed from the virtual machine by the balloon driver.n Counter: vmmemctln Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Balloon Target Desired amount of virtual machine balloon memory.Balloon target memory is estimated by the VMkernel.If the balloon target amount is greater than the balloon amount, the VMkernel inflates theballoon amount, which reclaims more virtual machine memory. If the balloon target amountis less than the balloon amount, the VMkernel deflates the balloon, which allows the virtualmachine to reallocate memory when needed.n Counter: vmmemctltargetn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)

Consumed Amount of guest physical memory consumed by the virtual machine for guest memory.Consumed memory does not include overhead memory. It includes shared memory andmemory that might be reserved, but not actually used.consumed memory = memory granted - memory saved due to memory sharingn Counter: consumedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)


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Shared Amount of guest physical memory available for sharing. Memory sharing occurs throughtransparent page sharing.n Counter: sharedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)

Swapped The amount of guest physical memory swapped out to the disk by the VMkernel. This datacounter measures VMkernel swapping and not to guest OS swapping.swapped = swapin + swapoutn Counter: swappedn Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)

Chart Analysis












Network (Mbps)The Network (Mbps) chart displays network bandwidth for the virtual machine.



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Usage Sum of the data transmitted and received across all virtual NIC instances connected tothe virtual machine.n Counter: usagen Unit: Megabits per second (Mbps)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 1 (4)

Chart Analysis

















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Network Rate (Mbps)The Network Rate chart displays network usage for virtual machines.

This chart is located in the Home view of the Virtual Machine Performance tab. It appears only at collectionlevels 3 and 4.



Data Receive Rate Rate at which data is received across each virtual NIC instance on the virtual machine.n Counter: receivedn Unit: Megabits per second (Mbps)n Rollup Type: Averagen Collection Level: 2 (4)

Data Transmit Rate Rate at which data is transmitted across each virtual NIC instance on the virtual machine.n Counter: transmittedn Unit: Megabits per second (Mbps)n Rollup Type: Averagen Collection Level: 2 (4)

Chart Analysis













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Network Packets (Number)The Network Packets monitors network bandwidth for virtual machines.

This chart is located in the Home view of the Virtual Machine Performance tab. It appears only at collectionlevels 3 and 4.



Packets Transmitted Number of network packets transmitted across each virtual NIC instance on the virtualmachine.n Counter: packetTxn Unit: Numbern Rollup Type: Summationn Collection Level: 3

Packets Received Number of network packets received across each virtual NIC instance on the virtualmachine.n Counter: packetRxn Unit: Numbern Rollup Type: Summationn Collection Level: 3

Chart Analysis






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Space in GBThe Space in GB chart displays space utilization data counters for virtual machines.

This chart is located in the Storage view of the virtual machine Performance tab.


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Allocated Total amount of logical datastore space provisioned by an administrator for the virtualmachine. It is the storage size up to which the virtual machine files on datastores cangrow. This includes log files, vmx files, and other miscellaneous files. Allocated space isnot always in use.n Counter: provisionedn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1

Used Amount of physical datastore space in use by the virtual machine files.n Counter: usedn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1

Not Shared Amount of datastore space that belongs only to this virtual machine and is not sharedwith other virtual machines. Only unshared space is guaranteed to be reclaimed for thevirtual machine if, for example, it is moved to a different datastore and then backagain.The value is an aggregate of all unshared space for the virtual machine, across alldatastores.n Counter: unsharedn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1

Chart Analysis



Space Utilization by DatastoresThe Space Utilization by Datastores chart displays the space used by a virtual machine on different datastoresin the datacenter. This chart does not show historical statistics. It only shows the most recently available data,which may be up to 30 minutes late, depending on when the last rollup occurred.

This chart is located in the Storage view of the Virtual Machine Performance tab.



<datastore> Amount of disk space in the datastore currently in use by the virtual machine.n Counter: usedn Unit: GigaBytes (GB)n Rollup Type: Latestn Collection Level: 1


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Chart Analysis



Space Utilization By File TypeThe Space Utilization by File Type chart displays the datastore usage in the datacenter. This chart does notshow historical statistics. It only shows the most recently available data, which may be up to 30 minutes late,depending on when the last rollup occurred.

This chart is located in the Storage view of the Virtual Machine Performance tab.











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Chart Analysis



Fault ToleranceThe fault tolerance charts contain information about CPU and memory for fault tolerant virtual machines.

NOTE The performance charts and help topics for fault tolerance are available only when you have faulttolerance enabled. If you select a link for a secondary virtual machine in the thumbnail section of the ResourcePools and Virtual Machines view of the cluster Performance tab, the navigation in the inventory updates tothe primary virtual machine. This occurs because secondary machines are not displayed in the inventory.

CPU (MHz)

The CPU (MHz) chart displays virtual CPU usage for fault tolerant virtual machines.

This chart is located in the Fault Tolerance view of the Virtual Machine Peformance tab. It is available only atcollection levels 3 and 4.


Name Description

Usage The average amount of virtual CPU, per CPU instance, in use on the primary andsecondary fault tolerant virtual machines.n Counter: usagemhzn Unit: Megahertz (MHz)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 3

Chart Analysis

A large discrepancy in CPU values between the primary and secondary virtual machines might indicateperformance problems. If there are performance problems, consider taking the following actions.

n Verify that the primary and secondary ESX/ESXi hosts are in the same CPU model family and have similarCPU configurations. For best results, use CPUs with the same stepping level.

n Verify that the CPU resource reservations set for both virtual machines are consistent within the cluster.VMware HA plans for a worst-case scenario by considering all powered on virtual machines in a clusterand finding the maximum memory and CPU reservations.

n Verify that the network and datastore connections for both virtual machines are similar.


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n Turn off power management (also known as power-capping) in the BIOS. If power management isenabled, the secondary host might enter lower performance, power-saving modes. Such modes can leavethe secondary virtual machine with insufficient CPU resources, potentially making it impossible for thesecondary to complete all tasks completed on a primary in a timely fashion.

n Turn off hyperthreading in the BIOS. If hyperthreading is enabled and the secondary virtual machine issharing a CPU with another demanding virtual machine, the secondary virtual machine might run tooslowly to complete all tasks completed on the primary in a timely fashion.

CPU System Time for vCPU (%)

The CPU System Time chart displays virtual CPU usage for fault tolerant virtual machines.

This chart is located in the Fault Tolerance view of the Virtual Machine Peformance tab. It is available only atcollection levels 3 and 4.



System Amount of time spent on system processes on each virtual CPU in the virtual machine.

NOTE This is the host view of the CPU usage, not the guest operating system view.

n Counter: systemn Unit: Percentage (%)n Rollup Type: Summationn Collection Level: 3

Chart Analysis







CPU Used Time for vCPU (%)

The CPU Used Time chart displays virtual CPU usage for fault tolerant virtual machines.

This chart is located in the Fault Tolerance view of the Virtual Machine Peformance tab.


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used Amount of used virtual CPU as a percentage of total available CPU on the primary and secondaryvirtual machines.A high value indicates excessive use of CPU resources.n Counter: usedn Unit: Percentage (%)n Rollup Type: Summationn Collection Level: 1

Chart Analysis







Memory Active (MB)

The Memory Active chart displays active memory usage for fault tolerant virtual machines.

This chart is located in the Fault Tolerance view of the Virtual Machine Peformance tab. It is not available atcollection level 1.



Active Amount of guest physical memory in use by the fault tolerant virtual machine. Activememory is estimated by VMkernel statistical sampling and represents the actual amount ofmemory the virtual machine needs. Additional, unused memory may be swapped out orballooned with no performance impact.n Counter: activen Unit: MegaBytes (MB)n Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)Make sure that the primary and secondary virtual machines have enough memory. If thesecondary system is not provisioned well, it might slow down performance of the primaryvirtual machine or fail.


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Chart Analysis












Memory Swapout (MB)

The Memory Swapout chart displays swapout memory usage for fault tolerant virtual machines.

This chart is located in the Fault Tolerance view of the Virtual Machine Peformance tab. It is not available atcollection level 1.



Swapout Amount of machine memory written to the VMkernel swap file.n Counter: swapoutn Unit: MegaBytesn Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)n Collection Level: 2 (4)Make sure that the primary and secondary virtual machines have enough memory and thatthe swapout value is not high. If the secondary system is not provisioned well, it might slowdown performance of the primary virtual machine or fail.

Chart Analysis


If there is sufficient swap space, a high balloon value is not a performance issue. However, if the swapin andswapout values for the host are large, the host memory is probably overcommitted.


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If a virtual machine has high ballooning or swapping, check the amount of free physical memory on the host.The host might be overcommitted. If the host is not overcommitted, check the resource shares, reservation,and limit of the virtual machines and resource pools on the host. Verify that the host settings are adequate andnot lower than those set for the virtual machine.

If memory usage is high or you notice degredation in performance, consider taking the following actions:








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Index

Aadvanced charts

set as default 22view 21view Help 22

Bbar charts, description 9

Ccluster charts 23collection intervals 13collection levels 12CPU system time

virtual machines, fault tolerance 82CPU usage

clustershosts 24resource pools and virtual

machines 24datacenters

clusters 32hosts

virtual machines 39resource pools

virtual machines 58, 61virtual machines 63, 65virtual machines, fault tolerance 81

CPU used timevirtual machines, fault tolerance 82

Ddata counters 11datacenter charts 32datacenters

file type storage 33datastore charts 35disk rate

hosts 41virtual machines 67

disk sizehosts 43virtual machines 69

disk usagecluster hosts 25hosts 40virtual machines 44, 65

Ffault tolerance charts 81

Hhost charts 37hosts

CPU usage 37

Lline charts, description 9

Mmemory active

virtual machines, fault tolerance 83memory consumed

hosts 47resource pools

virtual machines 59, 62virtual machines 70

memory data countersclusters 28hosts 50virtual machines 73

memory swapoutvirtual machines, fault tolerance 84

memory usageclusters

hosts 29datacenters

clusters 32hosts

virtual machines 46, 52, 56resource pools 59, 62

Nnetwork rate

hosts 54virtual machines 76

network sizehosts 55virtual machines 77

network usageclusters 30hosts 53virtual machines 74

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Ooverview charts

refresh 17set time range 17view 18

Pperformance charts

advanced charts, about 21overview charts 23overview charts, about 17types 9

performance metrics, about 11Performance tab

navigate 7pie charts, description 9

Rrefresh

overview charts 17resource pool charts 57, 60

Sstacked charts, description 9

storage data countersdatastores 35

storage usagedatastore total 33datastore virtual machines 37file types 35virtual machine datastores 79virtual machine disk space 78virtual machine file types 80

Tthumbnail charts

viewing 19

Vview

overview charts 18virtual machine charts 63virtual machines

CPU usage 63


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vsphere perf charts

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