To analyze the capacity metrics related to the generated alert, you create charts that compare different metrics. These comparisons help identify when something changed in your environment and what effect it had on the datastore.

As a network operations engineer, you create custom charts so that you can further investigate the problem, and to determine if implementing the alert recommendations can resolve the problem that the alert identifies.

Prerequisites

View the topological map for the datastore to determine if related objects are contributing to the alert or if triggering symptoms indicate that the datastore is contributing to other problems in your environment. See View the Affected Datastore in Relation to Other Objects.

Procedure

  1. From the left menu, click Trobleshoot and then clickAlerts. Select the alert name in the data grid, and click View additional metrics > All Metrics.
    The Metric Charts tab does not include charts. You must add the charts to compare.
  2. To analyze the first recommendation, Add more capacity to the Datastore Storage, add related charts to the workspace.
    1. Enter capacity in the metric list search text box.
      The list displays metrics that contain the search term.
    2. Double-click the following metrics to add the following charts to the workspace:
      • Capacity | Used Space (GB)
      • Disk Space | Capacity (GB)
      • Summary | Number of Capacity Consumers
    3. Compare the charts.
      For example, the Capacity | Used Space (%) chart might show an increase in used space, without the Disk Space | Capacity (GB) increasing or the Summary | Number of Capacity Consumers increasing. Then adding capacity can be a solution, but it does not address the root cause.
  3. To analyze the second recommendation, vMotion some Virtual Machines to a different Datastore, add related charts to the workspace.
    1. Enter vm in the metric list search text box.
    2. Double-click the Summary | Total Number of VMs metric to add it to the workspace
    3. Compare the four charts.
      For example, the Summary | Total Number of VMs chart might show that the number of virtual machines did not increase enough to affect the datastore negatively. That result might make moving some of the virtual machines seem the best solution, but it does not address the root cause.
  4. To analyze the third recommendation, Delete unused snapshots of virtual machines, add related charts to the workspace.
    1. Enter snapshot in the metric list search text box.
    2. Double-click the following metrics to add the charts to the workspace:
      • Disk Space | Snapshot Space (GB)
      • Disk Space Reclaimable | Snapshot Space | Waste Value (GB)
    3. Compare the charts.
      For example, say the amount of Disk Space | Snapshot Space (GB) increases. At the same time, the Disk Space Reclaimable | Snapshot Space | Waste Value (GB) indicates an area where space can be reclaimed. Then deleting unused snapshots positively affects the datastore disk space problem and resolves the alert.
  5. If this datastore is a problematic one that you must continue to monitor, create a dashboard.
    1. Click the Generate Dashboard button on the workspace toolbar.
    2. Enter a name for the dashboard and click OK.
      In this example, use a name like Datastore disk space.
    The dashboard is added to your available dashboards.

Results

You compared metric charts to determine if the recommendations are valid and which recommendation to implement first. In this example, the recommendation to Delete unused snapshots of Virtual Machines appears to be the most likely way to resolve the alert.

What to do next

Implement the alert recommendations. See Run a Recommendation on a Datastore to Resolve an Alert.