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vHost performance details

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Once you have found a host that looks abnormal in the vHost performance summary, the next question is "which resource on that host, and because of which VM?" vHost performance details lets you choose one ESXi host and view the CPU, memory, disk, network, and datastore trends as time series, and check the contribution and configuration information of each GuestVM on the same screen. Each chart comes with an interpretation guide that explains how to read the values. It is intended for operators who need to narrow down the cause of performance degradation to the host level in a virtualized environment.

Screen layout

The screen is divided into three areas.

AreaDescription
Main chartsShows five resource types of the vHost as time series. Click a card to open the detail charts
GuestVM tableMetrics per guest VM running on this host
vHost information tabsThree tabs: vHost information summary, vHost inventory, and vmGuest inventory

The five main charts are as follows.

ChartDescription
vHost CPU UsageCPU usage of the whole host
vHost Memory UsageMemory usage of the whole host
vHost Disk UsageStacked chart of disk reads and writes
vHost Network UsageStacked chart of network receive and send
vHost Datastore UsageUsage per datastore. One line per target
Note

Why the total is not drawn separately in stacked charts

The disk and network charts stack reads and writes (receive and send). Drawing the total value sent by the agent here as well would count the same amount twice, so it is not included. Check the total from the height of the stack and the Total value in the tooltip.

Opening the detail charts

Clicking a main chart card opens a drawer with nine detail charts for that resource. For example, clicking the CPU card lets you view CPU Usage, CPU Demand, GuestVM CPU Usage, CPU Latency, CPU Ready, CPU Co-Stop, CPU Active vCPU, CPU Active Overcommit Core, and CPU Allocated Overcommit Core together.

While the drawer is open, real-time refresh of the main charts behind it stops. This keeps two screens from querying the same range at the same time.

Reading the interpretation guide

The drawer also contains an interpretation guide that explains how to read the metrics. The guide is grouped by the following topics for each resource.

ResourceGuide sections
CPUBasic load judgment · Contribution per VM · Contention · Scheduling · Capacity · Overcommit · Overall judgment · Observation tips
MemoryBasic usage judgment · Memory reclamation stages · Contribution per VM · Overcommit · Capacity · Overall judgment · Observation tips
DiskBasic load judgment · Where the latency comes from · Saturation · Confirming the bottleneck · Contribution per VM · Overall judgment · Observation tips
NetworkBasic load judgment · Errors · Drop diagnosis · Contribution per VM · Overall judgment · Observation tips
DatastoreBasic load judgment · Diagnosis by latency layer · Capacity · Thin Provisioning · Overall judgment · Observation tips

The guide also states the caution and critical criteria for each metric. For example, it explains that CPU Ready is considered caution between 5% and 10%, and critical above 10%. Treat the guide text on the product screen as the authoritative source for threshold values.

Note

Overcommit metrics are percentages

Metrics that express an "allocation multiple against physical capacity", such as CPU Active Overcommit Core, are displayed as percentages. Physical capacity is treated as 100%, so the value can exceed 100%.

Query range and refresh interval

  • When you first enter the screen, the most recent 30 minutes are queried.
  • The real-time refresh interval is 30 seconds.
  • Drag a specific area of a chart to zoom into that range. The smallest range you can zoom into is 60 seconds.
Caution

The resolution changes beyond three hours

Ranges of three hours or less are queried at raw resolution, and wider ranges come down as 5-minute aggregates. To check a brief spike, narrow the range to within three hours.

vHost information tabs

The vHost information summary tab shows the main configuration information of the selected host: host name, ESXi management IP, vCenter address, datacenter, cluster, model, ESXi version, overall status, total memory, number of guest VMs, number of datastores, and uptime, in that order.

The vHost inventory and vmGuest inventory tabs show the same information in inventory table form. Clicking the View in VM inventory button on each tab takes you to the corresponding tab of the VM inventory screen.

Note

Uptime is shown in days

Uptime is the value recorded when the inventory was collected, so the number does not move immediately even though the screen refreshes every 30 seconds. Showing hours and minutes would expose this gap, so it is shown in days only.