Users Guide

Introduction to the Cartridge for Guest Process Investigation 17
Monitoring Virtual Machines with the Cartridge for Guest Process Investigation
To monitor virtual machines, the user currently has to bring up a separate monitor from
the one used to monitor the virtual machine, then view Perfmon to get details on what is
happening on the host. This is a time-consuming and inefficient process because users
have to sit and repeatedly watch real-time displays to spot the recurrence events. Those
monitoring virtual environments need the ability to set an unattended tool, and let that
tool draw attention to virtual machine(s) that are having performance problems.
Monitoring Virtual Machines with the Cartridge for Guest
Process Investigation
The vFoglight Cartridge for Guest Process Investigation allows you to monitor the
virtual infrastructure, health, and performance of processes inside virtual machines.
Guest Process agents are configured with virtual machines to send data back to
vFoglight. Alarms in vFoglight alert the user to problems which are then monitored to
determine what internal process might be affecting the performance of a virtual
machine.
For example, you may have a virtual machine that is running too slowly. You need to
determine the root cause. You can configure that machine with the Cartridge for Guest
Process Investigation and monitor its processes over a period of time. This reveals that
several instances of a single program are open and taking up all of the memory. You
close down those instances and the machine returns to its normal state.