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vSphere Performance Monitors

The vSphere performance monitors allow you to monitor and alert on specific VMware vSphere components: datacenters, clusters, resource pools, vApps, and VMs.

The metrics collected through VMware vCenter servers can be used by up.time through vSync, and subsequently be used to trigger up.time’s own alerts and actions, allowing you to integrate both your vSphere-managed and non-virtual resources.

These performance monitors can answer questions such as the following:

Is the CPU usage of VMs in a vApp, resource pool, cluster, or datacenter passing an acceptable level?
Is the memory consumed by VMs in a vApp, resource pool, cluster, or datacenter passing an acceptable level?
Is the number of ESX servers that are a part of the cluster or datacenter exceeding an acceptable number and threatening performance?

Datacenter and Cluster Performance

The Datacenter Performance and Cluster Performance monitors can trigger alerts on metrics collected through vSync.

Datacenter Performance and Cluster Performance Monitor Metrics

The following VMware vSphere metric types for datacenter or cluster performance can be used to configure thresholds in up.time:

Time Interval	A positive integer indicating the number of minutes’ worth of performance data samples to average, then compare against threshold definitions (default: 30).
Number of Running VMs: warning threshold and critical threshold	Warning- and critical-level thresholds can be set, using positive integers, for the average number of VMs powered on during the time interval.
Number of Running Hosts: warning threshold and critical threshold	Warning- and critical-level thresholds can be set, using positive integers, for the average number of vSphere ESX servers powered on during the time interval.
CPU Consumed: warning threshold and critical threshold	Warning- and critical-level thresholds can be set, using positive integers, for the total percentage of CPU cycles consumed by VMs belonging to this datacenter or cluster.
Memory Consumed: warning threshold and critical threshold	Warning- and critical-level thresholds can be set, using positive integers, for the total percentage of memory consumed by VMs belonging to this datacenter or cluster.

Configuring Datacenter Performance or Cluster Performance Monitors

To configure a Datacenter Performance or Cluster Performance monitor, do the following:

Select the monitor from the Add Service Monitor window, in the VMware Monitors section.
Click Continue to begin configuring the service monitor.
Complete the monitor information fields.
See Monitor Identification for more information on configuring service monitor information fields.
In the Cluster Performance Settings section, configure the monitor’s warning- and critical-level threshold values:
- Time Interval
- Number of Running VMs
- Number of Running Hosts
- CPU Consumed
- Memory Consumed
  For more information on these metrics, see VMware Monitors.
  For more information about setting thresholds and response time, see Configuring Warning and Critical Thresholds.
Complete the following settings:
- Timing Settings (see Adding Monitor Timing Settings Information for more information)
- Alert Settings (see Monitor Alert Settings for more information)
- Monitoring Period settings (see Monitor Timing Settings for more information)
- Alert Profile settings (see Alert Profiles for more information)
- Action Profile settings (see Action Profiles for more information)
Click Finish.

Resource Pool and vApp Performance

The Resource Pool Performance and vApp Performance monitors can trigger alerts on metrics collected through vSync.

Resource Pool Performance and vApp Performance Monitor Metrics

The following VMware vSphere metric types for resource pool and vApp performance can be used to configure thresholds in up.time :

Time Interval	A positive integer indicating the number of minutes’ worth of performance data samples to average, then compare against threshold definitions (default: 30).
Number of Running VMs: warning threshold and critical threshold	Warning- and critical-level thresholds can be set, using positive integers, for the average number of VMs powered on during the time interval.
CPU Consumed: warning threshold and critical threshold	Warning- and critical-level thresholds can be set, using positive integers, for the total percentage of CPU cycles consumed by VMs belonging to this resource pool or vApp.
Memory Consumed: warning threshold and critical threshold	Warning- and critical-level thresholds can be set, using positive integers, for the total percentage of memory consumed by VMs belonging to this resource pool or vApp.

Configuring Resource Pool Performance or vApp Performance Monitors

To configure a Resource Pool Performance or vApp Performance monitor, do the following:

Select the monitor from the Add Service Monitor window, in the VMware Monitors section.
Click Continue to begin configuring the service monitor.
Complete the monitor information fields.
See Monitor Identification for more information on configuring service monitor information fields.
In the Resource Pool Performance Settings section, configure the monitor’s warning- and critical-level threshold values:
- Time Interval
- Number of Running VMs
- CPU Consumed
- Memory Consumed
  For more information on these metrics, see VMware Monitors.
  For more information about setting thresholds and response time, see Configuring Warning and Critical Thresholds.
Complete the following settings:
- Timing Settings (see Adding Monitor Timing Settings Information for more information)
- Alert Settings (see Monitor Alert Settings for more information)
- Monitoring Period settings (see Monitor Timing Settings for more information)
- Alert Profile settings (see Alert Profiles for more information)
- Action Profile settings (see Action Profiles for more information)
Click Finish.

VM Performance

The VM Instance Performance monitor can trigger alerts on metrics collected through vSync.

VM Instance Performance Monitor Metrics

The following VMware vSphere metric types for VM instance performance can be used to configure thresholds in up.time:

Time Interval A positive integer indicating the number of minutes' worth of data samples to average, then compare against threshold definitions (default: 15).

CPU Value

Warning- and critical-level thresholds can be set, using positive integers, for a specific CPU-related value:

Usage (%): the percentage of total available CPU that was used by the VM
Usage (MHz): the average amount of CPU used, in MHz, by the VM
Ready Time (%): the percentage of the interval that the VM was ready to process, but was not scheduled CPU time by the host
Wait Time (%): the percentage of the interval that the VM had scheduled CPU time, but gave nothing to process

Info
If the virtual machine's allocated CPU resources in the VMware vSphere Client is set to its default Unlimited value, the Usage (%) metric in up.time will be based on the total available CPU for the host.

Memory Value

Warning- and critical-level thresholds can be set, using positive integers, for a specific memory-related value:

Usage (%): the percentage of total configured/available memory used by the VM
Memory Consumed (MB): the amount of memory consumed by the VM
Memory Active (MB): the amount of memory actively used by the VM
Balloon Memory (MB): the amount of memory allocated by vmmemctl

Info
If the virtual machine's allocated memory in the VMware vSphere Client is set to its default Unlimited value, the Usage (%) metric in up.time will not provide any data.

Swap Check

Warning- and critical-level thresholds can be set, using positive integers, for a swap-related value:

Usage (MB): the amount of guest physical memory swapped out to the VM's swap file by VMkernel
Swap Rate (Total KBps): the combined swap-in rate and swap-out rate for the VM

Disk I/O Value Warning- and critical-level thresholds can be set, using positive integers, for the aggregate disk I/O rate for the VM, in KBps.

Network I/O Value Warning- and critical-level thresholds can be set, using positive integers, for the aggregate received and transmitted rate, in KBps.

Configuring VM Instance Performance Monitors

To configure a VM Instance Performance monitor, do the following:

Select the monitor from the Add Service Monitor window, in the VMware Monitors section.
Click Continue to begin configuring the service monitor.
Complete the monitor information fields.
See Monitor Identification for more information on configuring service monitor information fields.
In the VM Instance Performance Settings section, configure the monitor's warning- and critical-level threshold values:
- Time Interval
- CPU Check
- Memory Check
- Swap check
- Disk I/O Check
- Network I/O Check
  For more information on these metrics, see VM Instance Performance Monitor Metrics.
  For more information about setting thresholds and response time, see Configuring Warning and Critical Thresholds.
Complete the following settings:
- Timing Settings (see Adding Monitor Timing Settings Information for more information)
- Alert Settings (see Monitor Alert Settings for more information)
- Monitoring Period settings (see Monitor Timing Settings for more information)
- Alert Profile settings (see Alert Profiles for more information)
- Action Profile settings (see Action Profiles for more information)
Click Finish.

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Power State Monitors

The power state monitors help you manage both available computing resources within your clusters, resource pools, and other logical divisions in your vSphere-managed infrastructure, as well as power consumption in your physical datacenters. Power state changes to your hosts, and the VMs running on them, can be alerted and acted on.

The power state monitors can answer questions such as the following:

Has a mission-critical VM been powered off?

Did a routine maintenance procedure start and complete properly?

Are enough expected VMs powering down during the weekend, indicating vSphere’s Distributed Power Management is functioning correctly?

ESX Server Power State

The ESX Server Power State monitor watches for changes to the power states of an ESX server that is managed by VMware vSphere, and can run alert or action profiles based on the change.

ESX Server Power State Monitor Status Types

In up.time , vSphere hosts will be in one of the following states:

Powered On	The host is running.
Powered Off	The host was powered off by an administrator through the vSphere Client.
Put on Standby	The host was put in standby mode either explicitly by an administrator, or automatically by vSphere Distributed Power Management (DPM).
Put in Maintenance	The host state is determined to be “unknown” if it is disconnected or not responding, implying it is in maintenance.

Configuring ESX Server Power State Monitors

To configure an ESX Server Power State monitor, do the following:

Select the monitor from the Add Service Monitor window, in the VMware Monitors section.

Click Continue to begin configuring the service monitor.

Complete the monitor information fields.
See Monitor Identification for more information on configuring service monitor information fields.
For more information on these power states, see VMware Monitors.

Info
When selecting an Element associated with this service monitor, only ESX servers monitored in up.time via vSync will appear in the Single System list.

In the main ESX Server Power State Settings section, in the Powered On sub-section, do the following:

In the Set Status to drop-down box, indicate what the monitor’s up.time state will be when the ESX server’s state is Powered On.
From the list, select which (if any) Alert Profiles are triggered when the host enters a powered-on state.
From the list select which (if any) Action Profiles will be triggered when the host enters a powered-on state.

In the Powered Off sub-section, do the following:

In the Set Status to drop-down box, indicate what the monitor’s up.time state will be when the ESX server’s state is Powered Off.
From the list, select which (if any) Alert Profiles are triggered when the host enters a powered-off state.
From the list select which (if any) Action Profiles will be triggered when the host enters a powered-off state.

In the Put on Standby sub-section, do the following:

In the Set Status to drop-down box, indicate what the monitor’s up.time state will be when the ESX server’s state is Standby.
From the list, select which (if any) Alert Profiles are triggered when the host enters a standby state.
From the list select which (if any) Action Profiles will be triggered when the host enters a standby state.

In the Put in Maintenance sub-section, do the following:

In the Set Status to drop-down box, indicate what the monitor’s up.time state will be when the ESX server’s state is Unknown.
From the list, select which (if any) Alert Profiles are triggered when the host enters an unknown state.
From the list select which (if any) Action Profiles will be triggered when the host enters an unknown state.

Complete the following settings:

Timing Settings (see Adding Monitor Timing Settings Information for more information)
Monitoring Period settings (see Monitor Timing Settings for more information)

Click Finish.

VM Instance Power State

The VM Instance Power State monitor watches for changes to the power states of a VM running on an ESX server that is managed by vSphere, and can run alert or action profiles based on the change.

See VMware Monitors for more information.

VM Instance Power State Monitor Status Types

A virtual machine’s three basic power states are as follows:

Powered On	The virtual machine is running.
Powered Off	The virtual machine is not running.
Suspended	The virtual machine is not running, but a snapshot of its running applications and processes is retained.

Configuring VM Instance Power State Monitors

To configure a VM Instance Power State monitor, do the following: