The performance data collection subsystem for vSphere collects performance data on various inventory items and their devices. Data counters define individual performance metrics. Performance metrics are organized into logical groups based on the object or object device. Statistics for one or more metrics can be displayed in a chart.

Table 1. Metric Groups
Metric group Description
Cluster Services Performance statistics for clusters configured by using vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler, vSphere High Availability, or both.
CPU CPU utilization per host, virtual machine, resource pool, or compute resource.
Datastore Statistics for datastore utilization.
Note: From VC 4.1 onwards, NFS statistics are collected under datastore statistics. For more information, see
Disk Disk utilization per host, virtual machine, or datastore. Disk metrics include I/O performance, such as latency and read/write speeds, and utilization metrics for storage as a finite resource.
Memory

Memory utilization per host, virtual machine, resource pool, or compute resource. The value obtained is one of the following:

  • For virtual machines, memory refers to the guest physical memory. Guest physical memory is the amount of physical memory presented as a virtual-hardware component to the virtual machine, at creation time, and made available when the virtual machine is running.
  • For hosts, memory refers to the machine memory. Machine memory is the RAM that is installed on the hardware that comprises the host.
Network Network utilization for both physical and virtual network interface controllers (NICs) and other network devices. The virtual switches that support connectivity among all components, such as hosts, virtual machines, VMkernel.
Power Energy usage statistics per host.
Storage Adapter Data traffic statistics per host bus adapter (HBA).
Storage Path Data traffic statistics per path.
System Overall system availability, such as the system heartbeat and uptime. These counters are available directly from hosts and from vCenter Server.
Virtual Disk Disk utilization and disk performance metrics for virtual machines.
Virtual Flash Virtual flash counters.
Virtual Machine Operations Virtual machine power and provisioning operations in a cluster or data center.
vSphere Replication Statistics for the virtual machine replication performed by VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager.