6.5.1

Table 1‑48. Data Counters
Chart Label Description
Usage Average data I/O rate across all LUNs on the host.
n
Counter: usage
n
Stats Type: Rate
n
Unit: Kilobytes per second (KBps)
n
Rollup Type: Average (Minimum/Maximum)
n
Collection Level: 1 (4)
Chart Analysis
Use the disk charts to monitor average disk loads and to determine trends in disk usage. For example, you
might notice a performance degradation with applications that frequently read from and write to the hard
disk. If you see a spike in the number of disk read or write requests, check whether any such applications
were running then.
The best ways to determine if your vSphere environment is experiencing disk problems is to monitor the
disk latency data counters. You can use the advanced performance charts to view these statistics.
n
The kernelLatency data counter measures the average amount of time, in milliseconds, that the
VMkernel spends processing each SCSI command. For best performance, the value must be 0 -1
milliseconds. If the value is greater than 4 ms, the virtual machines on the host are trying to send more
throughput to the storage system than the conguration supports. Check the CPU usage, and increase
the queue depth.
n
The deviceLatency data counter measures the average amount of time, in milliseconds, to complete a
SCSI command from the physical device. Depending on your hardware, a number greater than 15 ms
indicates probable problems with the storage array. Move the active VMDK to a volume with more
spindles or add disks to the LUN.
n
The queueLatency data counter measures the average amount of time taken per SCSI command in the
VMkernel queue. This value must always be zero. If not, the workload is too high and the array cannot
process the data fast enough.
If the disk latency values are high, or if you notice other problems with disk I/O performance, consider
taking the following actions.
Table 1‑49. Disk I/O Performance Enhancement Advice
# Resolution
1 Increase the virtual machine memory. It allows more operating system caching, which reduces I/O activity. Note: It
might require you to increase the host memory. Increasing memory might reduce the need to store data because
databases can utilize the system memory to cache data and avoid disk access.
To verify that virtual machines have adequate memory, check swap statistics in the guest operating system.
Increase the guest memory, but not to an extent that leads to excessive host memory swapping. Install VMware
Tools so that memory ballooning can occur.
2 Defragment the le systems on all guests.
3 Disable antivirus on-demand scans on the VMDK and VMEM les.
4 Use the vendor's array tools to determine the array performance statistics. When too many servers simultaneously
access common elements on an array, the disks might have trouble keeping up. To increase throughput, consider
array-side improvements.
5 Use Storage vMotion to migrate I/O-intensive virtual machines across multiple hosts.
6 Balance the disk load across all physical resources available. Spread heavily used storage across LUNs that are
accessed by dierent adapters. Use separate queues for each adapter to improve disk eciency.
7 Congure the HBAs and RAID controllers for optimal use. Verify that the queue depths and cache seings on the
RAID controllers are adequate. If not, increase the number of outstanding disk requests for the virtual machine by
adjusting the Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding parameter. For more information, see vSphere Storage.
Chapter 1 Monitoring Inventory Objects with Performance Charts
VMware, Inc. 37