VM /ETC

Lately, I have had several clients and peers ask me how to get disk usage and performance statistics from their current virtual infrastructure of ESX hosts and virtual machines . Some needed data for planning and sizing a new SAN, while others needed statistics for upgrading, adding more disks, or for optimizing multi path and VMFS performance. In one case the customer was trouble shooting poor VM performance issues. Regardless of the objectives there are some built in tools in both VirtualCenter and ESX server that can get this information for you. This post explains 2 native methods:

• Using the VI Cleint to access the Performance data in VirtualCenter
• Using esxtop from the ESX Service Console

I have included plenty of screenshots. As always, click on them for larger views. The rest of this post is in an outline format, but should be easy enough to follow.
 

Using the VI Client and Performance Data from VirtualCenter

1. Connect the VI Client to VirtualCenter
2. Select an ESX host in the object tree on the left
3. Click the Performance tab to the right
4. In the Switch to drop down box change to Disk
   • Use pop up chart for multiple ESX hosts simultaneously
   • By default view you can see Real time Read and Write stats in Kbps by vmhba path
   • You can change chart options to see historical data:
   • you can see the Latest, Maximum, Minimum, and Average values

Change the Chart Options to see historical data

• Last Day
• Last Week
• Last Month
• Last year

Change Chart Options to see other stats

• Latency stats in milliseconds
• Command stats in number
• Request stats in number

Change the Chart Options to see Cumulative Stats per VM

• Change Chart Type to Stacked Graph (Per VM)
• In the Objects window click the All button to select all VMs on the host

Click Apply and then OK

Using esxtop to watch disk usage from Service Console

1. Log in to ESX Service Console (use mRemote or Putty for remote session)
2. Start esxtop

#esxtop

Change from default CPU stats to ESX Disk adapter stats

Hit “d” key

Change view to see ESX disk device stats

Hit “u” key

Change view to see ESX disk VM stats

Hit “v” key

In any of the views above you can change view to see stats for virtual machines only

Hit “shift+v” keys

To see help at any tme while using esxtop hit the “h” key

To exit esxtop hit the “q” key

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