Use the VM Configuration dashboard to view the overall configuration of virtual machines in your environment, especially for the areas that need attention.

Design Considerations

See the Configuration Dashboards page for common design considerations among all the dashboards for configuration management.

As there are many configurations to be verified, if you have a larger screen, add additional checks as you deem fit, or add legends to the pie-charts.

How to Use the Dashboard

  • Click the row to select a data center from the data center table.
    • In a large environment, loading thousands of VMs increases the web page loading time. As a result, the VM is grouped by data center. In addition, it might make sense to review the VM configuration per data center.
    • For a small environment, vSphere World is provided, so you can view all the VMs in the environment.

    The VM Configuration dashboard is organized into three sections for ease of use. All the three sections display the VM configuration for the selected data center.

  • The first section covers limits, shares, and reservations.
    • Their values can easily become inconsistent among VMs, especially in an environment with multiple vCenter Servers.
    • Shares should be mapped to a service level, to provide a larger proportion of shared resources to those VMs who pay more. This means that you should only have as many shares as your service levels. If your IaaS provides gold, silver, and bronze, then you should have only three types of shares.
    • Value of the shares and reservation is relative. If you move a VM from one cluster to another (in the same or different vCenter Server), you might have to adjust the shares.
    • Reservation impacts your capacity. Memory reservation works differently from CPU reservation, and it is more permanent.
  • The second section covers VMware Tools.
    • VMware Tools is a key component of any VM, and should be kept running and up to date.
  • The third section covers other key VM configurations.
    • Keep the configurations consistent by minimizing the variants. This helps to reduce complexity.
    • VM Network Cards widget. If you suspect that your environment might have a VM with no NIC, consider adding it as a dedicated bucket.
  • The last section of the dashboard is collapsed by default.
    • You can view all the VMs with their key configurations.
    • You can sort the columns and export the results into a spreadsheet for further analysis.

Points to Note

  • The number of buckets in the pie-chart or bar-chart are balanced between the available screen estate, ease of use, and functionality. Modify the buckets to either reflect your current situation or your desired ideal state.
  • No data to display does not imply that there is something wrong with data collection by VMware Aria Operations. It might signify that none of the objects meet the filtering criteria of the widget, and as a result there is nothing to display.
  • To view the content of a slice in a pie-chart or a bucket in a bar-chart, click on it. The list cannot be exported. Clicking an object name, takes you to the object summary page. The page provides key configuration information, with other summary information.
  • The pie-chart and bar-chart cannot drive other widgets. For example, you cannot select one of the pie-slices or buckets, and expect it to act as a filter to a list or a table.
  • You can apply a specific color in a pie-chart or distribution chart for a specific numeric value, but not string value. For example, you cannot apply the color red to the value Not Installed.