6.7

Table 1‑120. Networking Performance Enhancement Advice (Continued)
# Resolution
4 Assign each physical NIC to a port group and a vSwitch.
5 Use separate physical NICs to handle the different traffic streams, such as network packets generated by virtual machines,
iSCSI protocols, vMotion tasks.
6 Ensure that the physical NIC capacity is large enough to handle the network traffic on that vSwitch. If the capacity is not
enough, consider using a high-bandwidth physical NIC (10 Gbps). Alternatively, consider moving some virtual machines to a
vSwitch with a lighter load or to a new vSwitch.
7 If packets are being dropped at the vSwitch port, increase the virtual network driver ring buffers where applicable.
8 Verify that the reported speed and duplex settings for the physical NIC match the hardware expectations and that the
hardware is configured to run at its maximum capability. For example, verify that NICs with 1 Gbps are not reset to 100 Mbps
because they are connected to an older switch.
9 Verify that all NICs are running in full duplex mode. Hardware connectivity problems might result in a NIC resetting itself to a
lower speed or half duplex mode.
10 Use vNICs that are TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO)-capable, and verify that TSO-Jumbo Frames are enabled where
possible.
Network Packets (Number)
The Network Packets monitors network bandwidth for virtual machines.
This chart is located in the Home view of the Virtual Machine Performance tab. It appears only at
collection levels 3 and 4.
Table 1‑121. Data Counters
Chart Label Description
Packets Transmitted Number of network packets transmitted across the top ten virtual NIC instances on the
virtual machine. The chart also displays the aggregated value for each NIC.
n
Counter: packetTx
n
Stats Type: Absolute
n
Unit: Number
n
Rollup Type: Summation
n
Collection Level: 3
Packets Received Number of network packets received across the top ten virtual NIC instances on the virtual
machine. The chart also displays the aggregated value for each NIC.
n
Counter: packetRx
n
Stats Type: Absolute
n
Unit: Number
n
Rollup Type: Summation
n
Collection Level: 3
vSphere Monitoring and Performance
VMware, Inc. 96