VMware vCenter Operations Manager - 5.8.5 Getting Started Guide
VMware vCenter Operations Manager
Getting Started Guide
vSphere User Interface
vCenter Operations Manager 5.8.5
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EN-000671-01
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide
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2 VMware, Inc.
Contents
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide 5
Introducing Key Features and Concepts 7
1
vCenter Operations Manager Features 7
Main Concepts of vCenter Operations Manager 8
Metric Concepts for vCenter Operations Manager 9
Beginning to Monitor the Virtual Environment 11
2
Object Type Icons in the Inventory Pane 11
Badge Concepts for vCenter Operations Manager 12
Major Badges in vCenter Operations Manager 12
Working with Metrics and Charts on the All Metrics Tab 22
Viewing Members and Relationships in the Monitored Environment 27
3
Check the Performance of Your Virtual Environment 28
Balancing the Resources in Your Virtual Environment 28
Find an ESX Host that Has Resources for More Virtual Machines 29
Find a Cluster that Has Resources Available for More Virtual Machines 30
Ranking the Health, Risk, and Efficiency Scores 30
View the Compliance Details 31
View a List of Members 33
Overview of Relationships 34
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Troubleshooting with vCenter Operations Manager 37
4
Troubleshooting Overview 37
Troubleshooting a Help Desk Problem 38
Troubleshooting an Alert 38
Finding Problems in the Virtual Environment 39
Finding the Cause of the Problem 41
Fix the Cause of the Problem 47
Assessing Risk and Efficiency in vCenter Operations Manager 49
5
Analyzing Data for Capacity Risk 49
Optimizing Data for Capacity 54
Forecasting Data for Capacity Risk 58
Working with Faults and Alerts 65
6
Events that Generate Faults 65
Monitoring Alerts in vCenter Operations Manager 66
3
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide
Working with Groups 75
7
Create a Group Type 76
Edit a Group Type 76
Delete a Group Type 77
Create a Group 77
Managing Groups 81
Application Custom Group 84
Set How Data Appears in vCenter Operations Manager 87
8
Create a New Policy 88
Modify an Existing Policy 109
Modify Summary, Views, and Reports Settings 110
Monitor the Performance of vCenter Operations Manager 113
9
Check the Health State of vCenter Operations Manager 113
Monitor Specific Metrics for vCenter Operations Manager 114
Monitor Specific Metrics for a vCenter Operations Manager Component 114
Index 115
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VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide
The VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide provides information about using VMware
vCenter™ Operations Manager to monitor your virtual environment.
Intended Audience
This guide is intended for administrators of VMware vSphere who want to familiarize themselves with
workflow tasks to monitor and manage the performance of the vCenter Operations Manager virtual
environment.
®
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VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide
6 VMware, Inc.
Introducing Key Features and
Concepts 1
vCenter Operations Managerprovides monitoring functionality for your virtual environment.
Understanding important features and concepts of vCenter Operations Manager helps you use the product
effectively.
This chapter includes the following topics:
“vCenter Operations Manager Features,” on page 7
n
“Main Concepts of vCenter Operations Manager,” on page 8
n
“Metric Concepts for vCenter Operations Manager,” on page 9
n
vCenter Operations Manager Features
vCenter Operations Manager collects performance data from each object at every level of your virtual
environment, from individual virtual machines and disk drives to entire clusters and datacenters. It stores
and analyzes the data, and uses that analysis to provide real-time information about problems, or potential
problems, anywhere in your virtual environment.
vCenter Operations Manager works with existing VMware products to add the following functions:
Combines key metrics into single scores for environmental health and efficiency and capacity risk.
n
Calculates the range of normal behavior for every metric and highlights abnormalities. Adjusts the
n
dynamic thresholds as incoming data allows it to better define the normal values for a metric.
Presents graphical representations of current and historical states of your entire virtual environment or
n
selected parts of it.
Displays information about changes in the hierarchy of your virtual environment. For example, when a
n
virtual machine is moved to a different ESX host, you can see how these changes affect the performance
of the objects involved.
Allows you to define "group" containers to organize monitored objects in accordance with the structure
n
of your environment.
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VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide
Main Concepts of vCenter Operations Manager
vCenter Operations Manager uses certain concepts that can help you understand the product, its interface,
and how to use it.
Attributes and Metrics
vCenter Operations Manager collects several kinds of data for each inventory object. For example, for a
virtual machine, vCenter Operations Manager might receive data about free disk space, CPU load, and
available memory. Each type of data that vCenter Operations Manager collects is called an attribute. An
instance of an attribute for a specific inventory object is called a metric. For example, free memory for a
specific virtual machine is a metric.
For each metric, vCenter Operations Manager collects and stores multiple readings over time. For example,
the vCenter Operations Manager server polls for information about the CPU load for each virtual machine
once every five minutes. Each piece of data that vCenter Operations Manager collects is called a metric
value.
Dynamic Thresholds
vCenter Operations Manager defines dynamic thresholds for every metric based on the current and
historical values of the metric. The normal range of values for a metric can differ on different days at
different times because of regular cycles of use and behavior. vCenter Operations Manager tracks these
normal value cycles and sets the dynamic thresholds accordingly. High metric values that are normal at one
time might indicate potential problems at other times. For example, high CPU use on Friday afternoons,
when weekly reports are generated, is normal. The same value on Sunday morning, when nobody is at the
office, might indicate a problem.
vCenter Operations Manager continuously adjusts the dynamic thresholds. The new incoming data allows
vCenter Operations Manager to better define what value is normal for a metric. The dynamic thresholds add
context to metrics that allows vCenter Operations Manager to distinguish between normal and abnormal
behavior.
Dynamic thresholds eliminate the need for the manual effort required to configure hard thresholds for
hundreds or thousands of metrics. More importantly, they are more accurate than hard thresholds. Dynamic
thresholds allow vCenter Operations Manager to detect deviations based on the actual normal behavior of
an object and not on an arbitrary set of limits.
The analytics algorithms take seven days to calculate the initial values for dynamic thresholds. Dynamic
thresholds appear as line segments under the bar graphs for use metrics on the Details page and on the
Scoreboard page. The length and the position of the dynamic threshold line segment depends on the
calculated normal values for the selected use metrics. Dynamic thresholds also appear as shaded gray areas
of the use metrics graphs on the All Metrics page.
Hard Thresholds
Unlike dynamic thresholds, hard thresholds are fixed values that you enter to define what is normal
behaviour for an object. These arbitrary values do not change over time unless you change them manually.
You cannot fix hard thresholds with vCenter Operations Manager.
Key Performance Indicators
vCenter Operations Manager defines attributes that are critical to the performance of an object as key
performance indicators (KPI). KPI are weighted more heavily in the calculations that determine the health of
an object. Graphs of KPI performance appear before other metrics in several areas of the product.
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Chapter 1 Introducing Key Features and Concepts
Alerts and Faults
vCenter Operations Manager generates alerts when events occur on the monitored objects, when data
analysis indicates deviations from normal metric values, or when a problem occurs with one of the
vCenter Operations Manager components.
Events that the vCenter Serverpublishes are the main source for faults. These events might originate in the
vCenter Server itself, or ESX servers might generate them and the vCenter Server publishes them externally.
Only a subset of vCenter events are considered as important for fault generation.
Metric Concepts for vCenter Operations Manager
Preparing to monitor your environment with vCenter Operations Manager involves some familiarity with
metrics that help you to identify a problem.
vCenter Server presents a use-based model of metrics. vCenter Operations Manager presents a demandbased model of metrics. Some knowledge of the metrics that affect the data and graphs is useful to
determine what to do next in a workflow.
Table 1‑1. Major Metric Concepts
Metric Description
Provisioned Amount of a resource that the user configures.
The provisioned metric might apply to the amount of
physical memory for a host or the number of vCPUs for a
virtual machine.
Usable Actual amount of a resource that the object can use.
The usable amount is less than or equal to the provisioned
amount. The difference between the provisioned amount
and usable amount stems from virtualization overhead.
This overhead might include the memory that an ESX host
uses to run the host, to support reservations for virtual
machines, and to add a buffer for high availability.
The usable metric does not apply to virtual machines.
Usage Amount of a resource that an object consumes.
The usage amount is less than or equal to the usable
amount.
Demand Amount of a physical resource that the object might
consume without any existing constraints.
An object becomes constrained because of underprovisioning or contention with other consumers of the
resource. A virtual machine might require 10GB of memory
but can only get 5GB because the virtual machine must
share resources with other virtual machines on the host.
When the demand amount is less than the usage amount,
the environment might have wasted resources. When the
demand amount is greater than the usage amount, the
environment might incur latency and exhibit decreased
performance.
Contention Difference between the amount of the resource that the
object requires and the amount of the resource that the
object gets.
This metric measures the effect of conflict for a resource
between consumers. Contention measures latency or the
amount of time it takes to gain access to a resource. This
measurement accounts for dropped packets for
networking.
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VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide
Table 1‑1. Major Metric Concepts (Continued)
Metric Description
Limit Maximum amount that an object can obtain from a
Reservation Guaranteed amount of resources for an object.
Entitlement Amount of a resource that a virtual machine can use based
resource.
The limit sets the upper bound for CPU, memory, or disk
I/O resources that you allocate and configure in vCenter
Server.
The usage amount is less than or equal to the limit amount.
The demand amount can be greater than the limit amount.
The limit amount is less than or equal to the provisioned
amount.
The default limit amount is unlimited.
Rules: Usage <= Limit
Demand can be greater than Limit .
The object does not start without this reserved amount. The
default amount is 0.
on the relative priority of that consumer set by the
virtualization configuration.
This metric is a function of provisioned, limit, reservation,
shares, and demand. Shares involve proportional
weighting that indicates the importance of a virtual
machine.
The entitlement amount is less than or equal to the limit
amount.
The entitlement metric applies only to virtual machines.
Rules: Entitlement <= Limit <= Provisioned
Entitlement >= Reservations
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Beginning to Monitor the Virtual
Environment 2
To use vCenter Operations Manager to monitor your virtual environment, you must understand the icons,
badges, and key metric concepts used in the product.
This chapter includes the following topics:
“Object Type Icons in the Inventory Pane,” on page 11
n
“Badge Concepts for vCenter Operations Manager,” on page 12
n
“Major Badges in vCenter Operations Manager,” on page 12
n
“Working with Metrics and Charts on the All Metrics Tab,” on page 22
n
Object Type Icons in the Inventory Pane
All objects that vCenter Operations Manager monitors are listed in the inventory pane.
vCenter Operations Manager uses specific icons so that you can distinguish between virtual machines, ESX
hosts, and other objects in the inventory.
Table 2‑1. Object Type Icons
Icon Description
World
The World object is a logical container for all monitored
objects in vCenter Operations Manager.
vCenter Server system
Datacenter
Cluster
ESX host that is in powered-off state
ESX host that is in powered-on state
Datastore
Virtual machine that is in powered-off state
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VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide
Table 2‑1. Object Type Icons (Continued)
Icon Description
Virtual machine that is in powered-on state
Custom group created by vCenter Operations Manager or
by administrators
By default, objects in the inventory pane are grouped by hosts and clusters. You can select Datastores from
the drop-down menu at the top of the inventory pane to switch the way objects are grouped.
Badge Concepts for vCenter Operations Manager
vCenter Operations Manager uses badges to illustrate derived metrics to provide an overview of the state of
the virtual environment or an individual object. These badges serve as focus points to narrow the scope of a
potential problem and provide details about the cause of the problem.
vCenter Operations Manager provides major and minor badges that are color coded and range from a
healthy green to a potentially problematic yellow, orange, or red. Badges are organized in a simple
hierarchy in which the scores of minor badges contribute to the scores of major badges.
Scores might reflect a healthy state or a potential problem depending on the type of badge. For example, low
scores for health, time remaining, and capacity remaining might indicate potential problems, while low
scores for faults, stress, or anomalies indicate a normal state.
You can use the Dashboard tab for an overview of the performance and condition of your virtual
infrastructure. The information you see on the Dashboard tab depends on the object you select in the
navigation tree. See “Object Type Icons in the Inventory Pane,” on page 11.
You can expand the panes on the Dashboard to view information about a specific badge. You can also
double-click badges to view details about the metrics that affect badge scores.
Major Badges in vCenter Operations Manager
vCenter Operations Manager generates major badges that start a workflow and help you to identify health,
capacity risk, and efficiency issues.
Each major badge contains minor badges. vCenter Operations Manager calculates major badges based on
the state of the minor badges.
Using Health to Measure the Overall State of the Environment
The vCenter Operations Manager Health badge serves as the first high-level indicator of the state of the
virtual environment.
The Health badge indicates immediate problems that might require your attention. It helps you identify the
current health of your system. vCenter Operations Manager combines workload, anomalies, and faults to
assess the overall health and to determine whether the workload level is expected in that environment. A
low health score might indicate a potential problem.
vCenter Operations Manager calculates the Health score by using the scores of the sub-badges that the
Health badge contains. Faults are given precedence in the Health score because they describe existing
problems, while Workload and Anomalies are combined to identify performance problems. This approach
ensures that the score of the Health badge reflects the actual state of the object, without exaggerating or
underestimating problems.
The Health score ranges between 0 (bad) and 100 (good). The badge changes its color based on the badge
score thresholds that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator.
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Chapter 2 Beginning to Monitor the Virtual Environment
Table 2‑2. Object Health States
Badge Icon Description User Action
The health of the object is
normal.
No attention required.
The object is experiencing some
level of problems.
The object might have serious
problems.
The object is either not
functioning properly or will
stop functioning soon.
No data is available.
The object is offline.
Check the Details tab and take
appropriate action.
Check the Details tab and take
appropriate action as soon as
possible.
Check the Details tab to identify
the most probable cause of the
problem and act immediately.
A vCenter Operations Manager administrator can change the badge score thresholds. For example, a green
Health badge can indicate a score above 80 instead of 75, as set by default.
The Health Weather Map
The Health Weather Map displays the health status of all the objects related to the object that you have
selected in the inventory pane.
The Health Weather Map is available for all objects in the inventory except virtual machines. For virtual
machines, vCenter Operations Manager displays a Health Trend graph.
Each square in the Weather Map represents a related object, directly or indirectly connected to the selected
object. For example, if you selected an ESX host in the inventory pane, the number of squares in the Health
Weather Map equals the sum of all virtual machines and datastores under this ESX host plus the Datacenter,
vCenter Server, and the World object that are above the ESX host in the inventory pane. The squares in the
Health Weather Map are not sized, so there is no visible correspondence between object types in the
inventory and the squares in the map. You can use the Health Weather Map for a quick overview of the
current condition and how it has changed during the past 6 hours. If you notice a red or yellow square, you
can click it to navigate to the Details tab of the object that corresponds to this square, and view more
information about its health.
By default, the Health Weather Map displays the current badge values. You can click the time line in the
bottom of the map to switch to earlier periods.
NOTE Selecting an earlier time period that is one or more hours away from the current moment displays the
condition of the monitored system as it was on the hour. For example, if the current time is 3:15 p.m. and
you click -1, vCenter Operations Manager displays the Health Weather Map for 3:00 p.m. If you click -2,
vCenter Operations Manager displays the Health Weather Map for 2:00 p.m.
Using the Workload Badge Under the Health Badge
The vCenter Operations Manager Workload badge measures how hard an object must work for resources. A
workload score of 0 indicates that a resource is not being used and a score that approaches or exceeds 100
might cause performance problems.
Workload is an absolute measurement that calculates the demand for a resource divided by the capacity of
an object. Resources might include CPU, memory, disk I/O, or network I/O.
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VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide
The Workload score ranges from 0 (good) to over 100 (bad). The badge changes its color based on the badge
score thresholds that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator.
Table 2‑3. Object Workload States
Badge Icon Description User Action
Workload on the object is not
excessive.
No attention required.
The object is experiencing some
high resource workloads.
Workload on the object is
approaching its capacity in at
least one area.
Workload on the object is at or
over its capacity in one or more
areas.
No data is available.
1 At the upper right of the
Health tab, click the View
details icon to open
the
VMware vCenter Operations
Manager user interface.
2 Check the Details tab to
identify which resources
experience abnormal
workload.
1 At the upper right of the
Health tab, click the View
details icon to open
the
VMware vCenter Operations
Manager user interface.
2 Check the Details tab to
identify which resources are
limited, and take appropriate
action as soon as possible.
1 At the upper right of the
Health tab, click the View
details icon to open
the
VMware vCenter Operations
Manager user interface.
2 Check the Details tab to
identify which resources are
exhausted. Act immediately
to avoid or correct problems.
The object is offline.
A vCenter Operations Manager administrator can change the badge score thresholds. For example, a green
Workload badge can indicate a score below 80 instead of 85, as set by default.
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Chapter 2 Beginning to Monitor the Virtual Environment
Using the Anomalies Badge Under the Health Badge
The vCenter Operations Manager Anomalies badge measures the extent of abnormal behavior for an object
based on historical metrics data. A high number of anomalies might indicate a potential issue.
A low Anomalies score indicates that an object is behaving in accordance with its established historical
parameters. Most or all of the object metrics, especially its KPIs, are within their thresholds. Because changes
in behavior often indicate developing problems, if the metrics of an object go outside the calculated
thresholds, the anomalies score for the object grows. As more metrics breach the thresholds, anomalies
continue to increase. Violations by KPI metrics increase the Anomalies score more than violations by nonKPI metrics. A high number of anomalies usually indicates a problem or at least a situation that requires
your attention.
Anomalies involves the number of statistics that fall outside of the expected behavior trends while
Workload involves an absolute measurement of how hard an object works for resources. Both Anomalies
and Workload are useful when attempting to find a probable cause and troubleshooting performance
problems.
The Anomalies score ranges between 0 (good) and 100 (bad). The badge changes its color based on the
badge score thresholds that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator.
Table 2‑4. Object Anomalies States
Badge Icon Description User Action
The Anomalies score is normal. No attention required.
The Anomalies score exceeds
the normal range.
The Anomalies score is very
high.
Most of the metrics are beyond
their thresholds. This object
might not be working properly
or might stop working soon.
No data is available.
The object is offline.
Check the Details tab to identify
what causes the abnormal
number of anomalies, and take
appropriate action.
Check the Details tab to identify
the cause of the abnormal
behaviour, and take appropriate
action as soon as possible.
Check the Details tab, and act
immediately to avoid or correct
problems.
A vCenter Operations Manager administrator can change the badge score thresholds. For example, a green
Anomalies badge can indicate a score below 60 instead of 50, as set be default.
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Using the Faults Badge Under the Health Badge
The Faults badge measures the degree of problems that the object might experience based on events
retrieved from the vCenter Server.
The events that might generate faults include the loss of redundancy in NICs or HBAs, memory checksum
errors, high availability failover, or Common Information Model (CIM) events, which require your
immediate attention.
NOTE vCenter Operations Manager calculates the Faults score for the World object by using the Faults
scores of the vCenter Server systems, the ESX hosts and clusters, and the datastores that belong to the World
inventory.
Therefore, if you have one vCenter Server with a Faults score of 100 and another vCenter Server with a
Faults score of 0, this might not necessarily result in a Faults score of 50 for the World object. The final Faults
score for the World object also depends on the number of datastores, ESX hosts and clusters in the
environment, and the Fault scores of these objects.
Fault scores of virtual machines are not taken into account when calculating the Faults score for the World
object.
While the Faults score ranges between 0 to 100, the badge changes color based on the badge score thresholds
that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator. For example, a green Faults badge can
indicate a score below 40 instead of a score below 25 (the system default).
Table 2‑5. Object Faults States
Badge Icon Description User Action
No faults are registered on the
selected object.
Faults of low importance are
registered on the selected
object.
Faults of high importance are
registered on the selected
object.
Faults of critical importance are
registered on the selected
object.
No data is available.
The object is offline.
No attention required.
Check the Details tab to find
more information and take
appropriate action.
Check the Details tab to find
more information about the
reported faults, and take
appropriate action as soon as
possible.
Check the Details tab to find
more information about the
reported faults, and act
immediately to avoid or correct
problems.
While the Faults score ranges between 0 to 100, the badge changes color based on the badge score thresholds
that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator. For example, a green Faults badge can
indicate a score below 40 instead of a score below 25 (the system default).
16 VMware, Inc.
Chapter 2 Beginning to Monitor the Virtual Environment
Defining Risk to Assess Future Problems in vCenter Operations Manager
The vCenter Operations Manager Risk badge indicates a potential performance problem in the near future
that might affect the virtual environment.
Risk involves the time remaining, capacity remaining, and stress factors that account for the time buffer,
remaining virtual machines, and degree of habitual high workload.
vCenter Operations Manager calculates the risk score using the scores of the sub-badges that the Risk badge
contains. The formula that is applied to calculate the risk score is inverse geometric weighted mean.
The overall risk score for an object ranges between 0 (no risk) to 100 (serious risk). The badge changes its
color based on the badge score thresholds that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator.
Table 2‑6. Object Risk States
Badge Icon Description User Action
The selected object has no
current problems. No problems
are expected in the future.
A low chance of future
problems exists or a potential
problem might occur in the far
future.
A chance of a more serious
problem exists or a problem
might occur in the mediumterm future.
The chances of a serious future
problem are high or a problem
might occur in the near future.
No data is available.
No attention required.
Navigate to the Scoreboard tab
to check which resources are
likely to exhaust and plan for
appropriate actions.
Navigate to the Scoreboard tab
to check which resources are
close to exhausting and take
appropriate actions as soon as
possible.
Navigate to the Scoreboard tab
in to check which resources are
exhausted and act immediately
to resolve or prevent problems.
The object is offline.
Using the Time Remaining Badge Under the Risk Badge
The vCenter Operations Manager Time Remaining badge measures the time before a resource associated
with an object reaches capacity. This badge indicates the available timeframe to provision or load balance
the physical or virtual resources for a selected object.
vCenter Operations Manager calculates the Time Remaining score as a percentage of time that is remaining
for each compute resource compared to the provisioning buffer you set in the Configuration dialog box. By
default, the Time Remaining score provisioning buffer is 30 days. If even one of the compute resources has
less capacity than the provisioned buffer, the Time Remaining score is 0.
For example, if the provisioning buffer is set to 30 days, and the object that you selected has CPU resources
for 81 days, memory resources for 5 days, disk I/O resources for 200 days, and network I/O resources for
more than one year, the Time Remaining score is 0, because one of the resources has capacity for less than 30
days.
The Time Remaining score ranges between 0 (bad) and 100 (good). The badge changes its color based on the
badge score thresholds that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator.
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Table 2‑7. Time Remaining States
Badge Icon Description User Action
The number of days that
remain is much higher than the
score provisioning buffer you
specified.
The number of days that
remain is higher than the score
provisioning buffer, but is less
than two times the buffer you
specified.
The number of days that
remain is higher than the score
provisioning buffer, but
approaches the buffer you
specified.
The number of days that
remain is lower than the score
provisioning buffer you
specified. The selected object
might have exhausted some of
its resources or will exhaust
them soon.
No data is available for the
Time Remaining score.
No attention required.
Check and take appropriate
action.
Check and take appropriate
action as soon as possible.
Act immediately.
The object is offline.
Using the Capacity Remaining Badge Under the Risk Badge
The vCenter Operations Manager Capacity Remaining badge measures the number of additional virtual
machines that the object can handle before reaching capacity.
The remaining virtual machines count represents the number of virtual machines that can be deployed on
the selected object, based on the current amount of unused resources and the average virtual machine
profile for the last "n" weeks. The remaining virtual machines count is a function of the same compute
resources of CPU, Mem, Disk I/O, Net I/O, and Disk Space that are used to calculate the Time Remaining
score.
vCenter Operations Manager calculates the Capacity Remaining score as a percentage of the remaining
virtual machines count compared to the total number of virtual machines that can be deployed on the
selected object.
The Capacity Remaining score ranges between 0 (bad) and 100 (good). The badge changes its color based on
the badge score thresholds that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator.
Table 2‑8. Object Capacity States
Icon Description User Action
The capacity remaining for
the object is at normal
level.
The capacity remaining for
the object is less than the
normal level.
No attention required.
Check and take appropriate action.
18 VMware, Inc.
Chapter 2 Beginning to Monitor the Virtual Environment
Table 2‑8. Object Capacity States (Continued)
Icon Description User Action
The capacity remaining for
the object is at seriously
low level.
The object is expected to
run out of capacity soon or
has already run out of
capacity.
No data is available for any
of the metrics for the time
period.
The object is offline.
Check and take appropriate action as soon
as possible.
Act immediately.
Using the Stress Badge Under the Risk Badge
The vCenter Operations Manager Stress badge measures a long-term workload that might involve
undersized virtual machines or ESX hosts or an excessive number of virtual machines. These conditions
might generate performance problems over time.
While workload is based on an instantaneous value, stress measures statistics over a longer period of time.
The Stress score helps you identify hosts and virtual machines that do not have enough resources allocated,
or hosts that are running too many virtual machines. A high Stress score does not imply a current
performance problem, but highlights potential for future performance problems.
The Stress score ranges between 0 (good) and 100 (bad). The badge changes its color based on the badge
score thresholds that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator.
Table 2‑9. Stress States
Badge Icon Description User Action
The Stress score is normal. No attention required.
Some of the object resources are
not enough to meet the
demands.
The object is experiencing
regular resource shortage.
Most of the resources on the
object are constantly
insufficient. The object might
stop functioning properly.
No data is available for the
Stress score.
Check and take appropriate
action.
Check and take appropriate
action as soon as possible.
Act immediately.
The object is offline.
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VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide
The Compliance Badge
The Compliance badge value is based on the results of compliance templates that are run in
vCenter Configuration Manager and are pulled into vCenter Operations Manager to contribute to the Risk
badge calculation.
The Compliance badge value is a score based on one or more compliance templates that you run in VCM
against the data collected from vCenter Server, datacenter, cluster, host system, virtual machine objects that
are managed by vCenter Operations Manager and by VCM. The scores are calculated based on configured
VCM settings.
A VCM compliance template comprises one or more rules that define the configuration standards for
different object groups or all your objects. A rule is defined with one or more conditions that are run against
objects to determine if the configuration meets the required standards. The success or failure of the
conditions determines whether the rule is successful or unsuccessful. The compliance templates are not run
against each object, but are run against the collected configuration data for each object.
The Compliance score ranges from 0 (completely non-compliant) to 100 (completely compliant). The color of
the badge changes based on the badge score thresholds that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager
administrator.
Table 2‑10. Object Compliance States
Badge Icon Description User Action
The object is in compliance with the
defined standards.
The object is not as compliant as you
would like based on the default
values you defined.
The object is seriously out of
compliance.
The object is non-compliant. 1 Click the Compliance badge.
No data is available for any of the
templates.
The object is offline.
No attention required.
1 Click the Compliance badge.
2 Check the template scores and take
appropriate action.
1 Click the Compliance badge.
2 Check the template scores and take
appropriate action as soon as
possible.
2 Act immediately to correct non-
compliant states based on template
results.
Defining Efficiency to Optimize the Environment
The vCenter Operations Manager Efficiency badge identifies the potential opportunities to improve the
performance or cost of your virtual environment.
Efficiency accounts for the waste and infrastructure density in your environment. A large amount of wasted
resources combined with a low density ratio generates a poor efficiency score.
The Efficiency score ranges between 0 (bad) and 100 (good). The badge changes its color based on the badge
score thresholds that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator.
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Chapter 2 Beginning to Monitor the Virtual Environment
Table 2‑11. Object Efficiency States
Badge Icon Description User Action
The resource use on the
selected object is optimal.
No attention required.
The efficiency is good, but can
be improved. Some resources
are not fully used.
The resources on the selected
object are not used in the most
optimal way.
The efficiency is bad. Many
resources are wasted.
No data is available.
The object is offline.
1 On the Planning tab, click
Views.
2 Use the views that are
available for the selected
object to identify underused
resources.
1 On the Planning tab, click
Views.
2 Use the views that are
available for the selected
object to identify underused
resources.
1 On the Planning tab, click
Views.
2 Try optimizing the resource
use to avoid resource waste.
Using the Reclaimable Waste Badge Under the Efficiency Badge
The vCenter Operations Manager Reclaimable Waste badge accounts for resource types such as CPU,
memory, or disk, and measures the extent of excessive provisioning for an object. It also identifies the
amount of resources that you can reclaim and provision to other objects in your virtual environment.
The Reclaimable Waste score ranges between 0 (good) and 100 (bad). The badge changes its color based on
the badge score thresholds that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator.
Table 2‑12. Reclaimable Waste States
Badge Icon Description User Action
No resources are wasted on the
selected object.
Some resource can be used
better.
Many resources are underused. Select Planning > Views to
Most of the resources on the
selected object are wasted.
No data is available for any of
the metrics for the time period.
The object is offline.
No attention required.
Select Planning > Views to
identify underused resources.
identify underused resources.
Select Planning > Views to
identify underused resources.
A vCenter Operations Manager administrator can change the badge score thresholds. For example, a green
badge can indicate a score below 50 instead of 75, as set by default.
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Using the Density Badge Under the Efficiency Badge
The vCenter Operations Manager Density badge measures consolidation ratios to assess cost savings. You
can assess the behavior and performance of a virtual machine and related applications to maximize the
consolidation ratio without affecting the performance or service level agreements.
The density score is the ratio of the actual density to an ideal density based on the demand, the amount of
virtual capacity, and the amount of physical usable capacity. Density calculates the amount of resources that
you can provision before contention or conflict for a resource occurs between objects. The ratios account for
the number of virtual machines to host, the number of virtual CPUs to physical CPU, and the amount of
virtual memory to physical memory.
The Density score ranges between 0 (bad) and 100 (good). The badge changes its color based on the badge
score thresholds that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator.
Table 2‑13. Object Density States
Badge Icon Description User Action
The resource consolidation is
good.
No attention required.
Some resources are not fully
consolidated.
The consolidation for many
resources is low.
The resource consolidation is
extremely low.
No data is available for any of
the metrics for the time period.
The object is offline.
Select Planning > Views to
identify resource consolidation
opportunities.
Select Planning > Views to
identify resource consolidation
opportunities.
Select Planning > Views to
identify resource consolidation
opportunities.
A vCenter Operations Manager administrator can change the badge score thresholds. For example, a green
Density badge can indicate a score above 40 instead of 25, as set by default.
Working with Metrics and Charts on the All Metrics Tab
You can check the location of an object in the hierarchy and select metrics to view graphs of their historic
values for a period you define.
You can use the panes on the All Metrics tab under the Operations tab to search metrics and view metric
graphs.
The Health Tree Pane
The Health Tree pane displays the location of the currently selected object in the hierarchy of your virtual
infrastructure. You can check all parent and child objects related to the currently selected object.
For example, the sample hierarchy shows the parent and child objects in the virtual infrastructure. The red
icon indicates a presence of a potential problem in the vCenter Server object. You can investigate the
probable cause of the problem from the Dashboard tab.
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Chapter 2 Beginning to Monitor the Virtual Environment
The Metric Selector Pane
The Metric Selector pane contains a list of all metric groups that are applicable to the currently selected
object. Metric groups contain all the metrics that are applicable to the currently selected object. The list of
available metrics is updated depending on the object you selected in the Health Tree pane.
The Search text box allows you find metrics using part of their names and filter the search results by metric
groups, instances or metric types.
For example, if you type % in the Search text box and select Metric from the drop-down menu, the search
result contains only metrics that are calculated as percentage.
The Metric Chart Pane
The Metric Chart pane displays the graphs of the metrics you select from the Metric Selector pane. You can
view as many graphs as you want. You can control the appearance of metric graphs and create screenshots
by using the buttons in the Metric Chart pane.
Health Tree Pane Buttons
In the All Metrics tab under the Operations tab, you can use the buttons of the Health Tree pane to control
the appearance of monitored objects in the health tree.
Button Tooltip Icon Description
Zoom to fit Resizes the view so all related objects fit in the health tree area. All previous zoom
operations are discarded.
Enter pan mode Allows you to pan the health tree.
Show values on point Enables metric value tooltips so that they appear when you point the graph with the
mouse pointer.
Enter zoom mode Allows you to enlarge sections of the health tree by drawing rectangles to enclose the area
to enlarge.
Zoom in Enlarges the middle of the health tree by one level.
Zoom out Reduces the middle of the health tree by one level.
Reset to initial object Reset the Health Tree pane to the original view for the selected object..
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Metric Chart Pane Buttons
On the All Metrics page, you can use the buttons of the Metric Chart pane to customize the appearance of
charts, and add or delete charts.
Global Control Buttons
These buttons control the appearance of all graphs that you open in the Metric Chart pane.
Button Tooltip Icon Description
Separate graphs by period Splits the current metrics graph in separate graphs by periods based on your
selection in the time and date widget.
Show/hide Y-axis Displays or hides the Y axis of the graph to display metric values.
Show/hide metric line Displays or hides the line that connects the data points in the metric graph.
Show/hide trend line Displays or hides the line that represents the trend of the currently selected metric
in the graph.
Show 24-hour dynamic
thresholds
Show entire period dynamic
thresholds
Show/hide anomalies Displays or hides the anomalies that occurred during the selected period in the
Retrieve complete metric
values
Enable X-axis zoom Allows you to enlarge the selected area of the graph only on the X axis while the Y
Enable Y-axis zoom Allows you to enlarge the selected area of the graph only on the Y axis while the X
Zoom to fit Resizes the charts so the entire graphs for all selected periods fit in the chart area.
Zoom Y-axis to dynamic
thresholds
Compress Y-axis Shortens the graph.
Displays or hides the calculated dynamic threshold values for a 24-hour period in
the graph.
Displays or hides the calculated dynamic threshold values for the entire
monitoring period in the graph.
graph.
In zoom mode, displays the values of the selected metric when you move the
mouse pointer over the graph.
axis remains static.
axis remains static.
All previous zooms are discarded.
Resizes the Y axis of the metric chart so that the highest and the lowest values on
the axis are the highest and the lowest values of the dynamic threshold calculated
for this metric.
Zoom all graphs together Resizes all metric graphs that are open in the Metric Chart pane.
Enter zoom mode Enables resizing of the metric graphs on both axis Y and axis X.
Enter pan mode When in zoom mode, allows you to drag the enlarged section of the graph around
to view higher, lower, earlier, or later values of the metric.
Show value on point Enables metric value tooltips so that they appear when you point the graph with
the mouse pointer.
Refresh Reloads all graphs in the Metric Chart.
Turn auto refresh on/off Activates or deactivates the auto refresh option for metric charts.
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Chapter 2 Beginning to Monitor the Virtual Environment
Button Tooltip Icon Description
Open date/time controls Opens the date and time widget for you to select the period to display on the
metric graph.
Remove all graphs Deletes all graphs from the Metric Chart pane.
Chart-Specific Buttons
These buttons control the specific chart to which they are attached. Some chart-specific buttons are available
only when you view graphs split by period.
Button Tooltip Icon Description
Move up When multiple graphs are open in the Metric Chart pane, this button moves the selected
graph one place up. Available only for split graphs view.
Move down When multiple graphs are open in the Metric Chart pane, this button moves the selected
graph one place down. Available only for split graphs view.
Save a snapshot Creates a real-size snapshot of the selected graph and opens a File Download window for
you to open or save the PNG file.
Save a full screen
snapshot
Download comma
separated data
Close Deletes the selected graph from the Metric Chart pane. Available only for split graphs
Creates an enlarged snapshot of the selected graph and opens a File Download window
for you to open or save the PNG file.
Creates a comma separated values file with the metric data for the selected graph and
opens a File Download window for you to open or save the CSV file. Available only for
split graphs view.
view.
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26 VMware, Inc.
Viewing Members and Relationships
in the Monitored Environment 3
The Environment tab allows you to look at the objects in your virtual environment from different
perspectives.
The Overview Tab
The Overview tab provides a visual representation of the population of your virtual environment by object
types. You can click objects to highlight their related parent and child objects. You can compare the scores of
related objects to narrow down the possible causes for a bad badge score.
For example, if the Health badge of an ESX host is red, but the health badge of its parent cluster is green, the
problem is either with the host itself, or with the virtual machines that run on that host. If the Health badges
of one or two virtual machines are red, these virtual machines might be causing the problem on the ESX
host. Therefore, you must check these virtual machines first. If the Health badges of all virtual machines are
red, the host system is experiencing hardware problems or cannot meet the demands of the virtual machines
that run on it.
The Scoreboard Tab
On the Scoreboard tab, you can view a population of data across multiple metrics dimensions to get a quick
glance overview of where and why problems exist. Scoreboards are useful for any object that has a
population, including group objects.
On the Scoreboard tab, you can compare the badge values of child objects of the currently selected object.
For example, you can use the Scoreboard tab to compare objects and analyze the current distribution and
availability of resources in your virtual environment.
The Members Tab
On the Members tab, you can vew a list of all objects under the currently selected object or group. In
addition to the names of objects and their parents, the list displays information about the policy that is
assigned to each object.
The Relationships Tab
The Relationships tab displays application related information provided by VMware vCenter Infrastructure
Navigator. You can view the relationship graph and object properties of the selected object and its related
objects.
This chapter includes the following topics:
“Check the Performance of Your Virtual Environment,” on page 28
n
“Balancing the Resources in Your Virtual Environment,” on page 28
n
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“Find an ESX Host that Has Resources for More Virtual Machines,” on page 29
n
“Find a Cluster that Has Resources Available for More Virtual Machines,” on page 30
n
“Ranking the Health, Risk, and Efficiency Scores,” on page 30
n
“View the Compliance Details,” on page 31
n
“View a List of Members,” on page 33
n
“Overview of Relationships,” on page 34
n
Check the Performance of Your Virtual Environment
On the Overview tab under the Environment tab, you can check the performance of your virtual
infrastructure to identify objects with potential performance problems.
You can check the performance of all objects on the vCenter Server that you added for monitoring in
vCenter Operations Manager.
Prerequisites
Verify that you are logged in to a vSphere Client, and that vCenter Operations Manager is open.
Procedure
1 On the Environment tab, click Overview, and click the badge that you want to inspect.
Option Description
Health (default)
Workload
Anomalies
Faults
Click to check the Health scores of all monitored objects.
Click to check the Workload scores of all monitored objects.
Click to check the Anomalies scores for all monitored objects.
Click to check the Faults scores for all monitored objects.
The states of all objects for the metric you selected appear in the Environment tab as colored badges.
2 (Optional) To filter objects by state, use the Status Filter buttons in the upper right of the Overview tab.
What to do next
How you proceed depends on your findings of the performance in your virtual environment.
Balancing the Resources in Your Virtual Environment
You can get an overview of where and why problems exist in your virtual environment, and how the
resources are distributed among objects.
On the Scoreboard tab under the Environment tab, you can compare the performance and available
resources of all child objects of the currently selected object, and look for answers to the following questions.
What is the current distribution and availability of resources in my virtual environment?
n
Which hosts have the resources to accommodate new virtual machines?
n
Which hosts require load balancing? Can I move virtual machines from an overloaded host to a less
n
loaded host?
Which child objects have the highest and the lowest scores for health, workload, anomalies, and faults?
n
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Chapter 3 Viewing Members and Relationships in the Monitored Environment
The Custom Overview Chart
The Custom Overview chart is a bubble chart that allows you to compare objects by their badge values. By
using the Custom Overview chart, you can draw better inferences from the data that
vCenter Operations Manager collects.
The chart presents data by four dimensions, using the following variables: color, size, x-axis, and y-axis. The
value that is represented by each variable depends on the selection in the View drop-down menu. When
Health, Risk, or Efficiency is selected in the View drop-down menu, the values for color, size, x-axis, and yaxis are populated automatically and cannot be modified. You can specify your own values only when
Custom is selected in the View drop-down menu.
You can use the buttons above the Custom Overview chart to filter objects by type and badge status.
Filtering allows you to slice the problem and narrow down the objects that are experiencing the problem to
a certain degree.
The Members List
The Members list displays details for all objects that are visualized in the Custom Overview chart. This list is
filtered based on the criteria that you specify for the Custom Overview chart. The columns contain object
name, type, and spark lines for all badges related to the object. At the end of each spark line, the latest
known value for the badge is displayed as a numeric label.
You can click objects in the Members list to highlight them in the Custom Overview chart, and you can click
objects in the Custom Overview chart to highlight them in the Members list.
The procedure that you must follow when searching for a host that can accommodate a new virtual machine
depends on the use of Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) on the vCenter Server.
Find an ESX Host that Has Resources for More Virtual Machines
If a vCenter Server host does not use Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), you can use the Scoreboard tab
to check the available resources on the ESX hosts in a cluster and make decisions on moving virtual
machines in your virtual infrastructure.
Prerequisites
Verify that you are logged in to a vSphere Client, and that vCenter Operations Manager is open.
Procedure
1 In the inventory view, click the datacenter or cluster that contains the ESX host that you want to assess.
2 On the Scoreboard tab, select Health from the View drop-down menu.
The colored bubbles in the Custom Overview chart represent the health scores for all object in the
datacenter that are online. The workload is represented by the X-axis.
The objects with highest workload appear to the right on the X-axis.
3 (Optional) To filter object types out of the Custom Overview chart, click their icons.
4 In the Custom Overview chart, click the bubble for a host that you think might accommodate more
virtual machines.
Usually, this should be the ESX host that is situated closer to the Y-axis.
The name of the host becomes highlighted in the Members List pane.
5 In the Members List pane, click the host name to open its Details tab.
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6 On the Details tab, review the Resources pane and the Workload graphs to assess the potential capacity
for new virtual machines.
If one or more resources of the host are approaching their limits, you might not want to add a virtual
machine to this ESX host.
What to do next
If the selected ESX host has enough resources, you can add the new virtual machines.
Find a Cluster that Has Resources Available for More Virtual Machines
If the vCenter Server host uses Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), you can use the Scoreboard tab to
check the available resources in each cluster and make decisions on moving virtual machines in your virtual
infrastructure.
Prerequisites
Verify that you are logged in to a vSphere Client, and that vCenter Operations Manager is open.
Procedure
1 In the inventory view, click the datacenter that contains the cluster that you want to assess, and click the
Environment tab.
2 On the Scoreboard tab, select Health from the View drop-down menu.
The colored bubbles in the Custom Overview chart represent the health scores for all objects in the
datacenter that are online. The workload is represented by the X-axis.
The objects with highest workload appear to the right on the X-axis.
3 (Optional) To filter object types out of the Custom Overview chart, click their icons.
4 In the Custom Overview chart, click the bubble of a cluster that you think might accommodate more
virtual machines.
Usually, this is a cluster that is situated closer to the Y-axis.
The name of the cluster becomes highlighted in the Members List pane.
5 In the Members List pane, click the object name to open its Details tab.
6 On the Details tab, review the Resources pane and the Workload graphs to assess the potential capacity
for new virtual machines.
If one or more resources are approaching their limits, you might not want to add a virtual machine to
this cluster.
What to do next
If the selected cluster has enough resources, you can add the new virtual machines.
Ranking the Health, Risk, and Efficiency Scores
On the Scoreboard tab, you can compare the scores of the Health, Risk, and Efficiency badges and their subbadges for child objects that are directly related to the object selected in the inventory pane.
Each child object is displayed as a circle in the Custom Overview chart. Larger circle size means higher score
for the badge that is selected in the Size drop-down menu.
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