vSphere includes virtual machine performance counters on Windows operating systems where VMware Tools is installed. Performance counters allow virtual machine owners to do accurate performance analysis within the guest operating system. By default, vSphere does not expose host information to the guest virtual machine.

By default, the capability to send host performance data to a virtual machine is deactivated. This default setting prevents a virtual machine from obtaining detailed information about the physical host. If a security breach of the virtual machine occurs, the setting does not make host data available to the attacker.

Note: The following procedure illustrates the basic process. Consider using ESXCLI or VMware PowerCLI commands for performing this task on all hosts simultaneously.

Procedure

  1. On the ESXi system that hosts the virtual machine, browse to the VMX file.
    Virtual machine configuration files are located in the /vmfs/volumes/datastore directory, where datastore is the name of the storage device where the virtual machine files are stored.
  2. In the VMX file, verify that the following parameter is set.
    tools.guestlib.enableHostInfo=FALSE
  3. Save and close the file.

Results

You cannot retrieve performance information about the host from inside the guest virtual machine.