6.7

Performance Monitoring
Utilities: resxtop and esxtop 8
The resxtop and esxtop command-line utilities provide a detailed look at how ESXi uses resources in
real time. You can start either utility in one of three modes: interactive (default), batch, or replay.
The fundamental difference between resxtop and esxtop is that you can use resxtop remotely,
whereas you can start esxtop only through the ESXi Shell of a local ESXi host.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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Using the esxtop Utility
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Using the resxtop Utility
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Using esxtop or resxtop in Interactive Mode
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Using Batch Mode
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Using Replay Mode
Using the esxtop Utility
You can run the esxtop utility using the ESXi Shell to communicate with the management interface of the
ESXi host. You must have root user privileges.
Type the command, using the options you want:
esxtop [-h] [-v] [-b] [-s] [-a] [-c config file] [-R vm-support_dir_path] [-d delay] [-n iterations]
The esxtop utility reads its default configuration from .esxtop50rc on the ESXi system. This
configuration file consists of nine lines.
The first eight lines contain lowercase and uppercase letters to specify which fields appear in which order
on the CPU, memory, storage adapter, storage device, virtual machine storage, network, interrupt, and
CPU power panels. The letters correspond to the letters in the Fields or Order panels for the respective
esxtop panel.
VMware, Inc.
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