KVM Server - Virtual Machines


The virtual machines (VMs) present in a KVM server are monitored based on the parameters or the attributes listed below. These attributes provide information about the functioning of the VMs. You can also configure thresholds to the numerical attributes of the VMs based on these details. 

  • Availability tab lists all the virtual machines present in the KVM servers and their availability status. You can also view Availability history of the virtual machines for the past 24 hours or 30 days.
  • Performance tab shows some key performance indicators of the virtual machine including CPU Utilization, Memory Utilization, Disk I/O Utilization and Network Utilization along with heat charts for these attributes. This tab also shows the health status and events for the past 24 hours or 30 days. 
  • List view displays all the virtual machines discovered under each KVM server. This view provides an overall idea of the availability and health of all the virtual machines. The list view also enables you to perform bulk admin configurations. Click on the individual virtual machines listed to view detailed VM metrics. 
  • Top Virtual Machines tab shows graphs for the top CPU consumers, top memory consumers, top disk I/O consumers, and top network consumers of the KVM server. This section enables you to find out which virtual machines are consuming your server resources and take action accordingly. 

Click on the individual monitors listed in the Availability tab to view detailed performance metrics of the corresponding virtual machine. Below is an explanation of the metrics categorized into five separate tabs:

Overview 

This tab provides a high-level overview of virtual machines running under KVM servers. 

Parameter Description
CPU Utilization
CPU Utilization The current CPU utilization value on the virtual machine. (%)
User The time taken to execute user commands. (%)
System The time taken to execute kernel commands. (%)
Memory Utilization
Memory Utilization The amount of memory consumed by the virtual machine. (%)
Used Memory The amount of memory used by the virtual machine. (GB)
Free Memory The remaining amount of memory available for the virtual machine. (GB)
Total Memory The total amount of memory allocated to the virtual machine. (GB)

Memory 

This tab provides details about the memory utilization of virtual machines running under KVM servers. 

Parameter Description
Ballooned Memory The amount of balloon memory allocated to the virtual machine. (GB)
Read from Swap The amount of data read from swap. (GB)
Write into Swap The amount of memory written into swap. (GB)
Disk I/O Fault Count The number of page faults where Disk I/O was required.
Page Fault Count The number of other page faults.
RSS Memory The amount of memory allocated for Resident Set Size (RSS) of the running virtual machine's process. (GB)

Disk

This tab provides details about disk utilization of virtual machines running under KVM servers. 

Parameter Description
Disk Details
Name The name of the device block available in virtual machine.
Source The path of the device block where it is mounted.
Capacity The total amount of space allocated in this device block. (GB)
Used The amount of memory utilized from this block by the virtual machine. (GB)
Free The remaining amount of memory available for use in this block. (GB)
Used Space The amount of memory used from this block by the virtual machine. (%)
Free Space The remaining amount of memory available for use in this block. (%)
Disk I/O Details
Name The name of the device block available in virtual machine.
Read Operations The number of read operations taking place in the virtual machine.
Time taken to Read The amount of time taken for the read operation to execute. (Sec)
Write Operations The number of write operations taking place in the virtual machine.
Time taken to Write The amount of time taken for the write operation to execute. (Sec)
Bytes Received The rate at which the data is received. (MB/Sec)
Bytes Transmitted The rate at which the data is transmitted. (MB/Sec)
Disk Block Details
Name The name of the device block available in virtual machine.
Block Capacity Total block device size for each block-device (Eg: vda, vdb, vdc, etc.) of a domain (in GB).
Block Used Amount of block size used for each block-device of a domain (in GB).
Block Free Remaining amount of block size available for each block-device of a domain (in GB).
Block Used Space Amount of block size used for each block-device of a domain (in %).
Block Free Space Remaining amount of block size available for each block-device of a domain (in %).

Note: The metrics in this tab will be shown only if the root user privileges are enabled in the KVM host server.

Network

This tab provides details about network utilization of virtual machines running under KVM servers.

Parameter Description
Network Interfaces
Name The name of the virtual network.
Type The type of virtual network used to connect to the network interface.
Source The source of the network interface through which the virtual network is connected.
Model The model name of the network interface card (NIC).
MAC Address The value of the Media Access Control (MAC) address for this NIC. 
Network Interface Utilization
Bytes Received The rate at which this NIC receives data. (MB/Sec)
Bytes Transmitted The rate at which this NIC transfers data. (MB/Sec)
Packets Received The number of packets received by the network interface.
Packets Transmitted The number of packets transferred by the network interface.

Configuration

This tab provides the configuration details of virtual machines running under KVM servers. 

Parameter Description
ID The ID value of the virtual machine.
Name The name of the virtual machine.
IP Address The value of IP address of the virtual machine.
UUID The value of Universal Unique Identifier of the virtual machine.
OS Type The type of virtualization supported by this OS.
Installed OS The name of the OS installed on this virtual machine.
State The current status of the virtual machine.
CPU(s) The number of CPUs allocated for the virtual machine.
Autostart Indicates whether this pool is automatically started during boot time or not. (Enabled or Disabled)

Guest OS Monitoring

Guest OS monitoring allows to monitor the Processes, Services, Event Logs(if windows VM) in a Virtual Machine monitor. To enable this for a VM monitor, Go to VM Monitor Details page -> Click Monitor Actions -> Click 'Configure OS' option. Provide the server credentials to connect with the OS. Once configured, under the Process / Services tab, the option to Add/Remove the process will be shown. By using this option, we can add process / services for monitoring.

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