Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 13
Monitoring VMware vSphere
Performance
The monitoring of VMware vSphere should be a combination of proactive benchmarking and
reactive alarm-based actions. vCenter Server provides both methods to help the administra-
tor keep tabs on each of the VMs and hosts as well as the hierarchical objects in the inventory.
Using both methods ensures that the administrator is not caught unaware of performance issues
or lack of capacity.
vCenter Server provides some exciting new features for monitoring your VMs and hosts,
such as expanded performance views and charts, and it greatly expands the number and types
of alarms available by default. Together, these features make it much easier to manage and mon-
itor VMware vSphere performance.
In this chapter, you will learn to
Use alarms for proactive monitoring
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Work with performance charts
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Integrate vCenter Operations Manager
Gather performance information using command-line tools
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Monitor CPU, memory, network, and disk usage by ESXi hosts and VMs
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Overview of Performance Monitoring
Monitoring performance is a key part of every vSphere administrator's job. Fortunately, vCenter
Server provides a number of ways to get insight into the behavior of the vSphere environment
and the VMs running within that environment.
The i rst tool vCenter Server provides is its alarms mechanism. Alarm dei nitions can be
attached to just about any object within vCenter Server and provide an ideal way to proactively
alert the vSphere administrator or datacenter staff about potential performance concerns or
resource usage. We'll discuss alarms in detail in the section “Using Alarms.”
Another tool that vCenter Server provides is the content area on the Summary tab of ESXi
hosts and VMs. The content area provides quick “at-a-glance” information on resource usage.
This information can be useful as a quick barometer of performance, but for more detailed
performance information, you will have to dive deeper into the vCenter tools that we'll discuss
later in this chapter.
