You can use various command-line options with esxtop and resxtop in interactive mode.

Table 1. Interactive Mode Command-Line Options
Option Description
h Prints help for resxtop (or esxtop) command-line options.
v Prints resxtop (or esxtop) version number.
s Calls resxtop (or esxtop) in secure mode. In secure mode, the -d command, which specifies delay between updates, is disabled.
d Specifies the delay between updates. The default is five seconds. The minimum is two seconds. Change this with the interactive command s. If you specify a delay of less than two seconds, the delay is set to two seconds.
n Number of iterations. Updates the display n times and exits. Default value is 10000.
server The name of the remote server host to connect to (required for resxtop only).
vihost If you connect indirectly (through vCenter Server), this option should contain the name of the ESXi host you connect to. If you connect directly to the ESXi host, this option is not used. Note that the host name needs to be the same as what is displayed in the vSphere Client.
portnumber The port number to connect to on the remote server. The default port is 443, and unless this is changed on the server, this option is not needed. (resxtop only)
username The user name to be authenticated when connecting to the remote host. The remote server prompts you for a password, as well (resxtop only).
a Show all statistics. This option overrides configuration file setups and shows all statistics. The configuration file can be the default ~/.esxtop50rc configuration file or a user-defined configuration file.
c filename Load a user-defined configuration file. If the -c option is not used, the default configuration filename is ~/.esxtop50rc. Create your own configuration file, specifying a different filename, using the W single-key interactive command.

Common Statistics Description

Several statistics appear on the different panels while resxtop (or esxtop) is running in interactive mode. These statistics are common across all four panels.

The Uptime line, found at the top of each of the four resxtop (or esxtop) panels, displays the current time, time since last reboot, number of currently running worlds and load averages. A world is an ESXi VMkernel schedulable entity, similar to a process or thread in other operating systems.

Below that the load averages over the past one, five, and fifteen minutes appear. Load averages consider both running and ready-to-run worlds. A load average of 1.00 means that there is full utilization of all physical CPUs. A load average of 2.00 means that the ESXi system might need twice as many physical CPUs as are currently available. Similarly, a load average of 0.50 means that the physical CPUs on the ESXi system are half utilized.

Statistics Columns and Order Pages

You can define the order of fields displayed in interactive mode.

If you press f, F, o, or O, the system displays a page that specifies the field order on the top line and short descriptions of the field contents. If the letter in the field string corresponding to a field is uppercase, the field is displayed. An asterisk in front of the field description indicates whether a field is displayed.

The order of the fields corresponds to the order of the letters in the string.

From the Field Select panel, you can:

  • Toggle the display of a field by pressing the corresponding letter.
  • Move a field to the left by pressing the corresponding uppercase letter.
  • Move a field to the right by pressing the corresponding lowercase letter.

Interactive Mode Single-Key Commands

When running in interactive mode, resxtop (or esxtop) recognizes several single-key commands.

All interactive mode panels recognize the commands listed in the following table. The command to specify the delay between updates is disabled if the s option is given on the command line. All sorting interactive commands sort in descending order.

Table 2. Interactive Mode Single-Key Commands
Key Description
h or? Displays a help menu for the current panel, giving a brief summary of commands, and the status of secure mode.
space Immediately updates the current panel.
^L Erases and redraws the current panel.
f or F Displays a panel for adding or removing statistics columns (text boxes) to or from the current panel.
o or O Displays a panel for changing the order of statistics columns on the current panel.
# Prompts you for the number of statistics rows to display. Any value greater than 0 overrides automatic determination of the number of rows to show, which is based on window size measurement. If you change this number in one resxtop (or esxtop) panel, the change affects all four panels.
s Prompts you for the delay between updates, in seconds. Fractional values are recognized down to microseconds. The default value is five seconds. The minimum value is two seconds. This command is not available in secure mode.
W Write the current setup to an esxtop (or resxtop) configuration file. This is the recommended way to write a configuration file. The default filename is the one specified by -c option, or ~/.esxtop50rc if the -c option is not used. You can also specify a different filename on the prompt generated by this W command.
q Quit the interactive mode.
c Switch to the CPU resource utilization panel.
p Switch to the CPU Power utilization panel.
m Switch to the memory resource utilization panel.
d Switch to the storage (disk) adapter resource utilization panel.
u Switch to storage (disk) device resource utilization screen.
v Switch to storage (disk) virtual machine resource utilization screen.
n Switch to the network resource utilization panel.
i Switch to the interrupt panel.