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VMware vCenter Server

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: vsphere

Overview

This collector monitors hosts and vms performance statistics from vCenter servers.

Warning: The vsphere collector cannot re-login and continue collecting metrics after a vCenter reboot. go.d.plugin needs to be restarted.

This collector is supported on all platforms.

This collector supports collecting metrics from multiple instances of this integration, including remote instances.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

This integration doesn't support auto-detection.

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

The default update_every is 20 seconds, and it doesn't make sense to decrease the value. VMware real-time statistics are generated at the 20-second specificity.

It is likely that 20 seconds is not enough for big installations and the value should be tuned.

To get a better view we recommend running the collector in debug mode and seeing how much time it will take to collect metrics.

Example (all not related debug lines were removed)
[ilyam@pc]$ ./go.d.plugin -d -m vsphere
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] discover.go:94 discovering : starting resource discovering process
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] discover.go:102 discovering : found 3 dcs, process took 49.329656ms
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] discover.go:109 discovering : found 12 folders, process took 49.538688ms
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] discover.go:116 discovering : found 3 clusters, process took 47.722692ms
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] discover.go:123 discovering : found 2 hosts, process took 52.966995ms
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] discover.go:130 discovering : found 2 vms, process took 49.832979ms
[ INFO ] vsphere[vsphere] discover.go:140 discovering : found 3 dcs, 12 folders, 3 clusters (2 dummy), 2 hosts, 3 vms, process took 249.655993ms
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] build.go:12 discovering : building : starting building resources process
[ INFO ] vsphere[vsphere] build.go:23 discovering : building : built 3/3 dcs, 12/12 folders, 3/3 clusters, 2/2 hosts, 3/3 vms, process took 63.3µs
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] hierarchy.go:10 discovering : hierarchy : start setting resources hierarchy process
[ INFO ] vsphere[vsphere] hierarchy.go:18 discovering : hierarchy : set 3/3 clusters, 2/2 hosts, 3/3 vms, process took 6.522µs
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] filter.go:24 discovering : filtering : starting filtering resources process
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] filter.go:45 discovering : filtering : removed 0 unmatched hosts
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] filter.go:56 discovering : filtering : removed 0 unmatched vms
[ INFO ] vsphere[vsphere] filter.go:29 discovering : filtering : filtered 0/2 hosts, 0/3 vms, process took 42.973µs
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] metric_lists.go:14 discovering : metric lists : starting resources metric lists collection process
[ INFO ] vsphere[vsphere] metric_lists.go:30 discovering : metric lists : collected metric lists for 2/2 hosts, 3/3 vms, process took 275.60764ms
[ INFO ] vsphere[vsphere] discover.go:74 discovering : discovered 2/2 hosts, 3/3 vms, the whole process took 525.614041ms
[ INFO ] vsphere[vsphere] discover.go:11 starting discovery process, will do discovery every 5m0s
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] collect.go:11 starting collection process
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] scrape.go:48 scraping : scraped metrics for 2/2 hosts, process took 96.257374ms
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] scrape.go:60 scraping : scraped metrics for 3/3 vms, process took 57.879697ms
[ DEBUG ] vsphere[vsphere] collect.go:23 metrics collected, process took 154.77997ms

There you can see that discovering took 525.614041ms, and collecting metrics took 154.77997ms. Discovering is a separate thread, it doesn't affect collecting. update_every and timeout parameters should be adjusted based on these numbers.

Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

Per virtual machine

These metrics refer to the Virtual Machine.

Labels:

LabelDescription
datacenterDatacenter name
clusterCluster name
hostHost name
vmVirtual Machine name

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
vsphere.vm_cpu_utilizationusedpercentage
vsphere.vm_mem_utilizationusedpercentage
vsphere.vm_mem_usagegranted, consumed, active, sharedKiB
vsphere.vm_mem_swap_usageswappedKiB
vsphere.vm_mem_swap_ioin, outKiB/s
vsphere.vm_disk_ioread, writeKiB/s
vsphere.vm_disk_max_latencylatencymilliseconds
vsphere.vm_net_trafficreceived, sentKiB/s
vsphere.vm_net_packetsreceived, sentpackets
vsphere.vm_net_dropsreceived, sentpackets
vsphere.vm_overall_statusgreen, red, yellow, graystatus
vsphere.vm_system_uptimeuptimeseconds

Per host

These metrics refer to the ESXi host.

Labels:

LabelDescription
datacenterDatacenter name
clusterCluster name
hostHost name

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
vsphere.host_cpu_utilizationusedpercentage
vsphere.host_mem_utilizationusedpercentage
vsphere.host_mem_usagegranted, consumed, active, shared, sharedcommonKiB
vsphere.host_mem_swap_ioin, outKiB/s
vsphere.host_disk_ioread, writeKiB/s
vsphere.host_disk_max_latencylatencymilliseconds
vsphere.host_net_trafficreceived, sentKiB/s
vsphere.host_net_packetsreceived, sentpackets
vsphere.host_net_dropsreceived, sentpackets
vsphere.host_net_errorsreceived, senterrors
vsphere.host_overall_statusgreen, red, yellow, graystatus
vsphere.host_system_uptimeuptimeseconds

Alerts

The following alerts are available:

Alert nameOn metricDescription
vsphere_vm_cpu_utilization vsphere.vm_cpu_utilizationVirtual Machine CPU utilization
vsphere_vm_mem_usage vsphere.vm_mem_utilizationVirtual Machine memory utilization
vsphere_host_cpu_utilization vsphere.host_cpu_utilizationESXi Host CPU utilization
vsphere_host_mem_utilization vsphere.host_mem_utilizationESXi Host memory utilization

Setup

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/vsphere.conf.

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/vsphere.conf

Options

The following options can be defined globally: update_every, autodetection_retry.

Config options
NameDescriptionDefaultRequired
update_everyData collection frequency.20no
autodetection_retryRecheck interval in seconds. Zero means no recheck will be scheduled.0no
urlvCenter server URL.yes
host_includeHosts selector (filter).no
vm_includeVirtual machines selector (filter).no
discovery_intervalHosts and VMs discovery interval.300no
timeoutHTTP request timeout.20no
usernameUsername for basic HTTP authentication.no
passwordPassword for basic HTTP authentication.no
proxy_urlProxy URL.no
proxy_usernameUsername for proxy basic HTTP authentication.no
proxy_passwordPassword for proxy basic HTTP authentication.no
not_follow_redirectsRedirect handling policy. Controls whether the client follows redirects.nono
tls_skip_verifyServer certificate chain and hostname validation policy. Controls whether the client performs this check.nono
tls_caCertification authority that the client uses when verifying the server's certificates.no
tls_certClient TLS certificate.no
tls_keyClient TLS key.no
host_include

Metrics of hosts matching the selector will be collected.

  • Include pattern syntax: "/Datacenter pattern/Cluster pattern/Host pattern".

  • Match pattern syntax: simple patterns.

  • Syntax:

    host_include:
    - '/DC1/*' # select all hosts from datacenter DC1
    - '/DC2/*/!Host2 *' # select all hosts from datacenter DC2 except HOST2
    - '/DC3/Cluster3/*' # select all hosts from datacenter DC3 cluster Cluster3
vm_include

Metrics of VMs matching the selector will be collected.

  • Include pattern syntax: "/Datacenter pattern/Cluster pattern/Host pattern/VM pattern".

  • Match pattern syntax: simple patterns.

  • Syntax:

    vm_include:
    - '/DC1/*' # select all VMs from datacenter DC
    - '/DC2/*/*/!VM2 *' # select all VMs from datacenter DC2 except VM2
    - '/DC3/Cluster3/*' # select all VMs from datacenter DC3 cluster Cluster3

Examples

Basic

A basic example configuration.

jobs:
- name : vcenter1
url : https://203.0.113.1
username : admin@vsphere.local
password : somepassword

Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique.

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

Config
jobs:
- name : vcenter1
url : https://203.0.113.1
username : admin@vsphere.local
password : somepassword

- name : vcenter2
url : https://203.0.113.10
username : admin@vsphere.local
password : somepassword

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode

To troubleshoot issues with the vsphere collector, run the go.d.plugin with the debug option enabled. The output should give you clues as to why the collector isn't working.

  • Navigate to the plugins.d directory, usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that's not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the plugins setting under [directories].

    cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/
  • Switch to the netdata user.

    sudo -u netdata -s
  • Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:

    ./go.d.plugin -d -m vsphere

Do you have any feedback for this page? If so, you can open a new issue on our netdata/learn repository.