You create a custom group of metric charts when you troubleshoot a problem with a virtual machine so that you can compare different metrics. The level of detail that you can create using the Metrics tab, can contribute significantly to your effort to find the root cause of a problem.

As an administrator investigating a performance problem with a virtual machine, you determined that you must see detailed charts about the following reported symptoms.

  • Guest file system overall disk space usage reaching critical limit
  • Guest partition disk space usage

The following method of evaluating problems using the Metrics 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.

Procedure

  1. Enter the name of the virtual machine in the Search text box on the menu bar.
    In this example, the virtual machine name is sales-10-dk.
  2. Click the Metrics tab.
  3. In the relationship topology map, click the virtual machine, dk-new-10.
    The metrics list, located in the left of the center pane, displays virtual machine metrics.
  4. On the chart toolbar, click Date Control and select a time that is on or before the symptoms were triggered.
  5. Add metric charts to the display area for the virtual machine.
    1. In the metric list, select Guest Files System Stats > Total Guest File System Free (GB) and double-click the metric name.
    2. To add the guest partition, for example, C:\, select Guest Files System Stats > C:\ > Guest File System Free (GB) and double-click the metric name.
    3. To add disk space for comparison, select Disk Space > Capacity Remaining (%) and double-click the metric name.
  6. Compare the charts.
    You can see a decrease in the file system free space, and that the virtual machine disk space capacity remaining is decreasing at a steady rate. You determine that you must add disk space to the virtual machine. However, you do not know if the datastore can support the change to the virtual machine.
  7. Add the datastore capacity chart to the charts.
    1. In the topology map, double-click the host.
      The topology map refreshes with the host as the focus object.
    2. Click the datastore.
    3. In the metric list, which is updated to display datastore metrics, select Capacity > Available Space (GB) and double-click the metric name.
  8. To determine if sufficient capacity is available on the datastore to support increasing the disk space on the virtual machine, review the datastore capacity chart.

Results

You know that you must increase the size of the virtual disk on the virtual machine.

What to do next

Expand the virtual disk on the virtual machine and assign it to stressed partitions. Click Actions, on the object title bar, and view the virtual machine in the vSphere Web Client.