You can use the vimtop utility plug-in to monitor vSphere services that run in the vCenter Server.

vimtop is a tool similar to esxtop, which runs in the environment of the vCenter Server. By using the text-based interface of vimtop in the appliance shell, you can view overall information about the vCenter Server, and a list of vSphere services and their resource use.

Monitor Services By Using vimtop in Interactive Mode

You can use the vimtop plug-in to monitor services in real time.

The default view of the vimtop interactive mode consists of the overview tables and the main table. You can use single-key commands in interactive mode to switch the view from processes to disks or network.

Procedure

  1. From an SSH client application, log in to the vCenter Server shell.
  2. Run the vimtop command to access the plug-in in interactive mode.

Interactive Mode Command-Line Options

You can use various command-line options when you run the vimtop command to enter the plug-in interactive mode.

Table 1. Interactive Mode Command-Line Options
Option Description
-h Prints help for the vimtop command-line options.
-v Prints the vimtop version number.
-c filename Loads a user-defined vimtop configuration file. If the -c option is not used, the default configuration file is /root/vimtop/vimtop.xml.

You can create your own configuration file, specifying a different filename and path by using the W single-key interactive command.

-n number Sets the number of performed iterations before the vimtop exits interactive mode. vimtop updates the display number number of times and exits. The default value is 10000.
-p / -d seconds Sets the update period in seconds.

Interactive Mode Single-Key Commands for vimtop

When running in interactive mode, vimtop recognizes several single-key commands.

All interactive mode panels recognize the commands listed in the following table.

Table 2. Interactive Mode Single-Key Commands
Key Names Description
h Show a help menu for the current panel, giving a brief summary of commands, and the status of secure mode.
i Show or hide the top line view of the overview panel of the vimtop plug-in.
t Show or hide the Tasks section, which displays information in the overview panel about the tasks currently running on the vCenter Server instance.
m Show or hide the Memory section in the overview panel.
f Show or hide the CPU section which displays information in the overview panel about all available CPUs.
g Show or hide the CPUs section which displays information in the overview panel about the top 4 physical CPUs.
spacebar Immediately refreshes the current pane.
p Pause the displayed information about the services resource use in the current panels.
r Refresh the displayed information about the services resource use in the current panels.
s Set refresh period.
q Exit the interactive mode of the vimtop plug-in.
k Displays the Disks view of the main panel.
o Switch the main panel to Network view.
Esc Clear selection or return to the Processes view of the main panel.
Enter Select a service to view additional details.
n Show or hide names of the headers in the main panel.
u Show or hide the measurement units in the headers in the main panel.
left, right arrows Select columns.
up, down arrows Select rows.
<,> Move a selected column.
Delete Remove selected column.
c Add a column to the current view of the main panel. Use spacebar to add or remove columns from the displayed list.
a Sort the selected column in ascending order.
d Sort the selected column in descending order.
z Clear the sort order for all columns.
l Set width for the selected column.
x Return the column widths to their default values.
+ Expand selected item.
- Collapse selected item.
w Write the current setup to a vimtop configuration file. The default file name is the one specified by -c option, or /root/vimtop/vimtop.xml if the -c option is not used. You can also specify a different file name on the prompt generated by the w command.