VMware ESX/ESXi Server Monitoring


VMware ESX/ESXi Server Monitoring - An Overview

ManageEngine Applications Manager provides comprehensive performance metrics to monitor your VMware ESX/ESXi servers and their guest virtual machines, and helps you ensure they are performing well at all times.

Applications Manager connects with VMware ESX/ESXi servers through standard APIs and determines the health status as well as the performance of the host servers and their corresponding virtual machines. It provides a single console to monitor physical, virtual and cloud components of your IT infrastructure.

Creating a new monitor

Supported Versions: ESX 3.5 and above; ESXi 3 and above.

Using the REST API to add a new VMware ESXi monitor: Click here

Follow the steps given below to create a new VMware ESX/ESXi server monitor:

  1. Click on New Monitor link.
  2. Select VMware ESX/ESXi under Virtualization category.
  3. Specify the Display Name of the VMware ESX server
  4. Enter the Host Name or IP Address of the host where the VMware server is running.
  5. Enter the Port where the server is running.
  6. Enter the credential details like user name and password for authentication, or select the required credentials from the Credential Manager list by enabling the Select from Credential list option.
  7. Select the VM Discovery option based on which the virtual machines should be discovered and monitored. The available options are Do not discover, Discover VM but do not monitor metrics, and Discover and Monitor VM metrics.

    For Discover VM but do not monitor metrics and Discover and Monitor VM metrics options, you can also specify the Discovery Filter Regex based on which the virtual machines are to be discovered and monitored. Learn more

  8. Specify the Polling Interval in minutes.
  9. If you are adding a new monitor from an Admin Server, select a Managed Server.
  10. Choose the Monitor Group with which you want to associate the VMware ESX server to, from the combo box (optional). You can choose multiple groups to associate your monitor.
  11. Click Add Monitor(s). This discovers the VMware ESX/ESXi server from the network and starts monitoring it.

User Permissions

In order to add VMWare ESX/ESXi servers for monitoring, we recommend to use the root account. However, in case you are unable to use the root account, you can use a 'view-only' profile to add the servers. This profile has enough rights to be used for monitoring. The user you create must be:

  • a member of the group user
  • based on the profile 'read only'

Monitored Parameters

Go to the Monitors Category View by clicking the Monitors tab. Click on VMware ESX/ESXi under the Virtualization Table. Displayed is the VMware ESX/ESXi bulk configuration view distributed into three tabs:

  • Availability tab gives the Availability history of the ESX server in the past 24 hours or 30 days.
  • Performance tab gives the Health Status and events for the past 24 hours or 30 days,some key performance indicators of the ESX server such as CPU Utilization, Memory Utilization, Disk Usage and Network Usage along with heat charts for these attributes.
  • List view enables you to perform bulk admin configurations and displays all the VMware ESX/ESXi servers along with an overall idea of their availability and health status.
  • Top ESX/ESXi tab shows graphs for the top CPU consumers, top memory consumers, top disk I/O consumers and top network consumers of the ESX/ESXi server.
  • Infrastructure View tab displays all the virtual machines discovered under each ESX/ESXi server. This view provides an overall idea of the availability, health, CPU (%), Memory (%), Disk I/O and Network traffic of all the virtual machines. Click on the individual virtual machines listed to view detailed VM metrics.

VMware ESX servers are monitored based on the parameters or the attributes listed below. These attributes provide information about the functioning of the monitors of VMware ESX server. You can also configure thresholds to the numerical attributes monitored by the server based on these details.

Click on the monitor listed in the Availability tab to view detailed performance metrics of the ESX/ESXi server. These metrics are categorized into 9 different tabs for easy understanding. Below is an explanation of the metrics shown in these tabs:

Overview

This tab provides a high-level overview of the ESX/ESXi server as well as its resource utilization.

Parameter Description
Monitor Information
Name The name of VMware ESX/ESXi server monitor
Type Denotes the type of servers you are monitoring.
Health Denotes the health (Clear, Warning, Critical) status of the ESX/ESXi server.
Last Polled at Specifies the time at which the last poll was performed.
Next Poll at Specifies the time at which the next poll is scheduled.
Availability Shows the current status of the server - available or not available.
CPU & Memory Utilization
CPU Utilization The current CPU Utilization value of the ESXi host (in %).
CPU Idle Time The average time that the CPU cores remain in an idle state (in ms).
CPU Usage The total CPU usage across the system (in MHz).
CPU Utilization of Cores The average value of CPU Utilization of all the cores combined across the system (in %).
Memory Utilization Amount of memory utilized across the system (in %).
Disk & Network Usage
Disk Usage Disk usage of ESX/ESXi server (in KBps).
Network Usage Network usage of ESX/ESXi server (in KBps).
Virtual Machines
VM Name Name of the virtual machine (VM) present in the host
Availability Denotes the availability of the VM - available or not available
CPU Utilization The CPU utilization of this VM in percentage
Memory Utilization The memory utilization of this VM in percentage
Disk I/O Utilization The disk input/output utilization of this VM (in KBps).
Network Utilization The network usage of this VM (in KBps).
Health The health status (Clear, Warning, Critical) of this VM


CPU

This tab provides metrics about CPU Utilization details of the cores.

Parameter Description
CPU Utilization The cpu utilization of the CPU core over a period of time(in percentage)
Health The overall health of the CPU core
CPU Idle Time The total time that each CPU core remains in an idle state (in ms).


Memory

This tab provides metrics about memory utilization of the ESX server.

Parameter Description
Consumed Memory The value of total memory minus free memory (in MB).
Active Memory Amount of memory that is actively used
Overhead Memory Sum of overhead memory across all VMs
Reserved Memory Amount of memory currently utilized to satisfy minimum memory values set for all VMs.
Shared Memory Amount of memory shared between virtual machines
Granted Memory Amount of physical memory granted
Swapped Memory Amount of memory that is swapped
Heap Memory Amount of memory allocated for heap
VMKernel Memory Amount of memory used by the VMKernel


Datastore

This tab displays metrics pertaining to the data stores of the server.

Parameter Description
Datastore Name of the datastore
Type Type of datastore (Example: VMFS or VMware File System)
Capacity GB The total space available in this datastore (in GB).
Used GB The used space of this datastore (in GB).
Free GB The free space of this datastore (in GB).
Utilization % Percentage of used space in this datastore
Free Space % Percentage of free space in this datastore
Health Overall health of the datastore
Read Rate The rate at which data is read from the datastore (in KBps).
Write Rate The rate at which data is written to the datastore (in KBps).
Read Latency The average time taken for a read from the datastore (in ms).
Write Latency The average time taken for a write to the datastore (in ms).

Note: The capacity, used and free metrics are not supported for NFS datastores.

Important Note:
  • In Applications Manager versions below 14790, if a datastore was used by multiple ESXi servers, then each ESXi server would add the same datastore and monitor it separately.
  • From version 14790 onwards, existing datastore would be dropped and added automatically, and all associated ESXi servers would then be mapped to the single datastore instance.
  • As a result, this would lead to data and alert configuration loss for existing datastores.
  • However, history data can be obtained if proper backup is performed before upgrading Applications Manager.

Network

This tab provides metrics about network utilization

Parameter Description
Name Name of the Network Interface Card (NIC) of the host
Data Receive Rate The rate at which this NIC receives data (in KBps).
Data Transfer Rate The rate at which this NIC transfers data (in KBps).
Packets received Number of network packets received by this NIC
Packets Transmitted Number of network packets transmitted by this NIC
Health Overall health of this NIC


Disk I/O

This tab shows detailed disk I/O (Input/Output) stats of the ESX/ESXi server

Parameter Description
LUN Logical unit number associated with the physical disk
Disk Read Rate Disk read rate of this LUN (in KBps).
Disk Write Rate Disk write rates of this LUN (in KBps).
Disk Reads Number of reads to this LUN
Disk Writes Number of writes to this LUN
Health Overall health of this LUN
Read Latency The average amount of time taken during the collection interval to process a SCSI read command issued from the Guest OS to the virtual machine (ms).
Write Latency Average amount of time taken during the collection interval to process a SCSI write command issued by the Guest OS to the virtual machine (ms).
Commands Aborted The number of SCSI commands aborted during the collection interval.
Bus Resets The number of SCSI-bus reset commands issued during the collection interval.

Hardware

The folloiwng are metrics pertaining to the hardware of the server.

Parameter Description
Power Sensor Reading will be monitored (in Watts).
Fan Sensor Reading will be monitored (in percentage).
Temperature Sensor Reading will be monitored (in Degree Celsius).
Processors Health status of the sensor will be monitored.
Memory Health status of the sensor will be monitored.
  • If a component is functioning normally, the status indicator is green.
  • The status indicator changes to orange or red if a system component violates a performance threshold or is not functioning properly. Generally, an orange indicator signifies degraded performance.
  • A red indicator signifies that a component stopped operating or exceeded the highest threshold.
  • If the status is blank, then the health monitoring service cannot determine the status of the component.
  • The Reading column displays the current values for the sensors. For instance, the column displays watts consumed for System Board and degrees Celsius for temperature.

Storage

Applications Manager automatically maps VMware vSphere servers and their VMs to their underlying physical storage arrays. You can track the vSphere servers and their VMs to the datastores, to the host bus adapters and the actual physical storage. The Storage Mapping table displays a hierarchial map view containing the list of Virtual Machines, Datastores, Storage Arrays and corresponding LUN statistics associated with the ESXi host.

Parameter Description
STORAGE ADAPTERS
Adapter Name  The  name of the Storage Adapter.
Adapter Status The status of the Storage Adapter: Online, Offline, Fault, Unknown.
Model The model of the storage adapter.
Type The type of storager adapter.
Driver The driver details of the storage adapter.
Target Count The Target Count for that storage adapter.
LUN Count The number of array LUNs on the host.
Path Count The number of total storage paths on the server.

Replication

Parameter Description
NETWORK TRAFFIC
HBR Received Rate Outgoing host-based replication network traffic for this virtual machine or host (in kB/s).
HBR Transmitted Rate Average amount of data transmitted per second in the host-based replication (in kB/s).
Number of HBR Configured VMs Number of powered-on virtual machines running on this host that currently have host-based replication protection enabled.

Event Log

This tab shows a detailed Event List for monitoring of ESX Events.

Parameter Description
Event Name The name of the event.
Description A description of the Event.
Severity The severity of the log event.
Generated Time The time at which the event is generated.

Note: To configure new events, Click the Monitor Actions button in the right-hand corner of the page and in the drop-down menu, click Configure Events.

Configuration

This tab provides info on the ESX/ESXi server's configuration details.

Parameter Description
Host Name The name of VMware ESX/ESXi server monitor
Power The power status of the server. The values include poweredOn, poweredOff and standBy.
Vendor Name The name of the vendor offering Virtualization (VMware)
Version Version of ESX/ESXi server
Hardware Vendor Name Hardware vendor identification
Hardware Model System model identification
CPU Model Information about the overall CPU
CPU Capacity MHz The overall CPU capacity (in Mega Hertz)
CPU Cores Number of CPU cores present in the server
Logical Processors Number of Virtual Processors currently configured in the server.
Number of VMs Number of virtual machines discovered in the server
NTP Configuration Indicates whether NTP feature is enabled or not in the ESXi server.
NTP Status Indicates whether NTP service running or not in the ESXi server.

 

Important Note: By default, Applications Manager will monitor the Virtual Machine Power status and make it down when the Virtual Machines are turned off. Default behaviour is to escalate the child VM monitor's health status to parent ESXi host monitor. As a result, Virtual machine down status will affect the parent ESXi host monitor. To skip this behaviour, follow the below mentioned steps:
  1. Disable the powered off VMs manually from Overview page of ESXi host monitor. Make sure to enable it back in case VM power status needs to be monitored again.
  2. Remove the health attribute of VM from ESXi host monitor's health attribute dependency list. This can be done by navigating to the ESXi host monitor page → click Configure Alarm → Configure Health → enable the checkbox Configure actions at attribute level → enable the checkbox Show advanced option → move the health of the reported VM's back from Selected dependent attributes box to List of dependent attributes box and save the changes.
  3. If the child VM is not required to be monitored, delete the VM and update the ESXi monitor as Do not discover VM from Edit Monitor page of the reported ESXi host.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

1. How can I check if the Managed Object Browser (MOB) service is enabled in the ESX host?

  • Connect to the host using the ESXi Shell.
  • Determine if the managed object browser (MOB) is enabled, by running the following command:
vim-cmd proxysvc/service_list
If the service is running, the following text appears in the list of services:
...
serverNamespace = '/mob',
accessMode = "httpsWithRedirect",
pipeName = "/var/run/vmware/proxy-mod",
...
  • If the service is not running, enable MOB service using the following command:vim-cmd proxysvc/add_np_service "/mob" httpsWithRedirect /var/run/vmware/proxy-mob
  • To disable the MOB service, use the following command:
vim-cmd proxysvc/remove_service "/mob" "httpsWithRedirect"
 
For ESXi 6.0 and above:

The MOB service is disabled by default. So when you try to access the MOB url of ESX host, the output should look like this:

You can enable MOB service from the VSphere client (or) ESXi shell.
 
From VSphere Client:
  • Connect to the ESX host via VSphere client version 6.
  • In the Configuration tab, go to Software and then Advanced Settings.
  • Enable the Config.HostAgent.plugins.solo.enableMob check box and click ok.
 
From ESXi Shell:
  • Connect to the host using the ESXi Shell.
  • Check the ESXi Advanced Setting using vim-cmd as follows:
vim-cmd hostsvc/advopt/view Config.HostAgent.plugins.solo.enableMob

 

The Output should look like this:

 
Configuring the ESXi Advanced Setting to true:

vim-cmd hostsvc/advopt/update Config.HostAgent.plugins.solo.enableMob bool true

2. What is the MOB URL used to obtain the datastore details in the ESXi host?

The MOB URL we use for obtaining the ESXi host datastore details is as follows:

https://<ESXiHOST_IP>:<ESXiHOST_PORT>/mob/?moid=ha-folder-datastore

where

          ESXiHOST_IP          --->   IP address of the ESXi host server

          ESXiHOST_PORT   --->   Port number of the ESXi host server

After accessing this link, you'll find a list of all the available datastores within the ESXi host under the 'value' field of 'datastore' name field.

Select and click over the required datastore from the list in order to get the complete details of that particular datastore.