VMware Aria Operations connects to VMware vCenter Server® instances through the vCenter adapter to collect metrics for vCenter Server components and uses formulas to derive statistics from those metrics. You can use metrics to troubleshoot problems in your environment.

vCenter Server components are listed in the describe.xml file for the vCenter adapter. The following example shows sensor metrics for the host system in the describe.xml file. 

<ResourceGroup instanced="false" key="Sensor" nameKey="1350" validation="">
    <ResourceGroup instanced="false" key="fan" nameKey="1351" validation="">
        <ResourceAttribute key="currentValue" nameKey="1360" dashboardOrder="1" dataType="float"  defaultMonitored="false"   isDiscrete="false" isRate="false" maxVal="" minVal=""  unit="percent"/>
        <ResourceAttribute key="healthState" nameKey="1361" dashboardOrder="1" dataType="float"  defaultMonitored="false"   isDiscrete="false" isRate="false" maxVal="" minVal="" />
    </ResourceGroup>
    <ResourceGroup instanced="false" key="temperature" nameKey="1352" validation="">
        <ResourceAttribute key="currentValue" nameKey="1362" dashboardOrder="1" dataType="float"  defaultMonitored="false"   isDiscrete="false" isRate="false" maxVal="" minVal="" />
        <ResourceAttribute key="healthState" nameKey="1363" dashboardOrder="1" dataType="float"  defaultMonitored="false"   isDiscrete="false" isRate="false" maxVal="" minVal="" />
    </ResourceGroup>
 </ResourceGroup>

Each ResourceAttribute element includes the name of a metric that appears in the UI and is documented as a Metric Key.

Table 1. Sensor Metrics for Host System Cooling
Metric Key Metric Name Description
Sensor|fan|currentValue Speed Fan speed.
Sensor|fan|healthState Health State Fan health state.
Sensor|temperature|currentValue Temperature Host system temperature.
Sensor|temperature|healthState Health State Host system health state.