In VMware Aria Operations , you use alerts on a group to review the summary alert information for hosts and virtual machine descendant objects. Using this method, you can see how the state of one object type can affect the state of the other.

As a network operations center engineer, you are responsible for monitoring a group of hosts and virtual machines for the sales department. As part of your daily tasks, you check the state of the objects in the group to determine if there are any immediate problems or any upcoming problems based on generated alerts. You start with your group of objects, particularly the host systems in the group, and review the information in the Summary tab.

In this example, the group includes the following object alerts.

  • Health alert:Host has memory contention caused by a few virtual machines.
  • Risk alert:Virtual Machine has a chronic high memory workload.
  • Risk alert:Virtual Machine is demanding more CPU than the configured limit.
  • Efficiency alert:Virtual Machine has large disk snapshots.

The following method of evaluating alerts on the Summary tab is provided as an example for using VMware Aria Operations and is not definitive. Your troubleshooting skills and your knowledge of the particulars of your environment determine which methods work for you.

Prerequisites

  • Create a group that includes virtual machines and the hosts on which they run. For example, Sales Dept VMs and Hosts. For an example of how to create a similar group, see VMware Aria Operations Configuration Guide.
  • Create a group that includes virtual machines and the hosts on which they run. For example, Sales Dept VMs and Hosts. For an example of how to create a similar group, see the VMware Aria Operations Configuration Guide.
  • Review how the Summary tab works with object groups and related hierarchies. See Evaluating Object Information Using Badge Alerts and the Summary Tab.

Procedure

  1. In the menu, click Environment.
  2. Click the Custom Groups tab and click, for example, your Sales Dept VMs and Hosts group.
  3. To view the alerts for a host and the associated child virtual machines, in the left pane, click, for example, Host System and click the host name in the lower left pane.
    The Summary tab displays the Health, Risk, and Efficiency badges.
  4. To view the Summary tab for the host so that you can also work with the child virtual machines, click the right arrow to the right of the host name in the lower left pane.
  5. Select the vSphere Hosts and Clusters, located in the upper part of the left pane.
    To work with alerts for child virtual machines, the host in the vSphere Hosts and Clusters hierarchy must be the focus of the Summary tab rather than the host as a member of the object group.
  6. To view the alert details for an alert in the list, click the alert name.
    When multiple objects are affected, and you click the alert link to view the details, the Health Issues dialog box appears. If there is only one object affected, the Alerts tab for the object is displayed.
  7. On the Alerts tab, begin evaluating the recommendations and triggered symptoms.
    In this scenario, a recommendation for this generated alert is to move some virtual machines with a high memory workload from this host to a host with more available memory.
  8. To return to the object Summary tab so that you can review alerts for any child virtual machines, click the back button located in the left pane.
    The host is again the focus of the object Summary tab. Generated alerts for the child virtual machines appear in the following table.
  9. Click each virtual machine alert and evaluate the information provided on the Alerts tab.
    Virtual Machine Alert Evaluation
    Virtual Machine has a chronic high memory workload.

    The recommendation is to add more memory to this virtual machine.

    If one or more virtual machines are experiencing high workload, this situation is probably contributing to the host memory contention alert. These virtual machines are candidates for moving to a host with more available memory. Moving the virtual machines can resolve the host memory contention alert and the virtual machine alert.

    Virtual Machine is demanding more CPU than the configured limit.

    The recommendations include increasing or removing the CPU limits on this virtual machine.

    If one or more virtual machines are demanding more CPU than is configured, and the host is experiencing memory contention, then you cannot add CPU resources to the virtual machine without further stressing the host. These virtual machines are candidates for moving to a host with more available memory. Moving the virtual machines can allow you to increase the CPU count and resolve the virtual machine alert, and might resolve the host memory contention alert.

  10. Take the suggested actions.

Results

Your actions might resolve the virtual machine and host alerts.

What to do next

After a few collection cycles, look again at your Sales VMs and Hosts group to determine if the alerts are canceled and no longer appear in the object Summary tab. If the alerts are still present, see User Scenario: Investigate the Root Cause of a Problem by Using the Troubleshooting Tab Options for an example troubleshooting workflow.