5.7

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.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Getting Started Guide
12 VMware, Inc.