VMware 4817V62 - vSphere - PC Administration Manual page 266

vSphere Basic System Administration
Collection Levels
Each collection interval has a default collection level that determines how many data counters are used when
collecting statistics data.
The collection level establishes which metrics are retrieved and recorded in the vCenter Server database. You
can assign a collection level of 1- 4 to each collection interval, with level 4 having the largest number of counters.
By default, all collection intervals use collection level 1.
The collection level for an interval cannot be greater than the collection level set for the preceding collection
interval. For example, if the Month interval is set to collection level 3, the Year interval can be set to collection
level 1, 2, or 3, but not to collection level 4. This is a vCenter Server dependency.
Table 22-4 describes each collection level and provides recommendations on when to use them.
Table 22-4. Collection Levels
Level Metrics
Level 1
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
Level 2
n
n
n
n
n
Level 3
n
n
n
Level 4 All metrics supported by the vCenter Server, including minimum
and maximum rollup values.
Generally, you need to use only collection levels 1 and 2 for performance monitoring and analysis. Levels 3
and 4 provide granularity that is generally useful only for developers. Unless vCenter Server is set to a collection
level that contains a data counter, the data for that counter is not stored in the database nor is it rolled up into
a past-day statistic on the ESX/ESXi host. The counter will not appear in the performance charts.
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Cluster Services (VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler) –
all metrics
CPU – cpuentitlement, totalmhz, usage (average), usagemhz
Disk – capacity, maxTotalLatency, provisioned, unshared,
usage (average), used
Memory – consumed, mementitlement, overhead,
swapinRate, swapoutRate, swapused, totalmb, usage
(average), vmmemctl (balloon)
Network – usage (average)
System – heartbeat, uptime
Virtual Machine Operations – numChangeDS,
numChangeHost, numChangeHostDS
Level 1 metrics
CPU – idle, reservedCapacity
Disk – All metrics, excluding numberRead and numberWrite.
Memory – All metrics, excluding memUsed and maximum
and minimum rollup values.
Virtual Machine Operations – All metrics
Level 1 and Level 2 metrics
Metrics for all counters, excluding minimum and maximum
rollup values.
Device metrics
Best Practice
Use for long-term performance
monitoring when device statistics are
not required.
Level 1 is the default Collection Level
for all Collection Intervals.
Use for long-term performance
monitoring when device statistics are
not required but you want to monitor
more than the basic statistics.
Use for short-term performance
monitoring after encountering
problems or when device statistics are
required.
Due to the large quantity of
troubleshooting data retrieved and
recorded, use level 3 for the shortest
time period possible— the Day or Week
collection interval.
Use for short-term performance
monitoring after encountering
problems or when device statistics are
required.
Due to the large quantity of
troubleshooting data retrieved and
recorded, use level 4 for the shortest
amount of time possible.
VMware, Inc.