Retrieving VMware vSphere Performance Metrics Catalog with F#

vSphere collects a lot of performance metrics data on a VMware cluster. Our problem was that we cannot find a complete documentation on what are all those performance metrics data collected and what are the units of the collected metric data. We have asked VMware professional services engineer about this and his response was that VMware does not have the metrics data documented.

However, in Chapter 16 of the vSphere Web Services Programming Guide, it talked about the fact that you can retrieve the metrics catalog from vSphere itself. Although this document talks about retrieving the metrics catalog via vSphere Web Services SDK, you can also retrieve the metrics catalog with PowerCLI. Below is a F# script that retrieves vSphere metrics catalog:

#r @"C:\pkg\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI\VMware.Vim.dll"

open System
open VMware.Vim
open System.Collections.Specialized

let client = new VimClient()
let service = client.Connect(serviceUrl)

// Must login to do anything - if you are getting null values, it means the session automatically timed out
client.Login(userId,password)

let printMetricCatalog () =
 // counterId max is arbitrarily set, I tried other values
 // and still produced the same number of returned metrics
    let counterIds = seq {1 .. 1000}
    let perfMgr = new PerformanceManager(client,client.ServiceContent.PerfManager)
    let metrics = perfMgr.QueryPerfCounter(counterIds |> Seq.toArray)

    let dumpAllMetricData (metric:PerfCounterInfo) = 
        printfn "-------------------------------------------------------------------\n"
        printfn "Key             : %i" metric.Key
        printfn "Level           : %A" metric.Level
        printfn "PerDeviceLevel  : %A" metric.PerDeviceLevel
        printfn "RollupType      : %A" metric.RollupType
        printfn "StatsType       : %A" metric.StatsType
        printfn "Group.Label     : %s" metric.GroupInfo.Label
        printfn "Group.Key       : %s" metric.GroupInfo.Key
        printfn "Group.Summary   : %s" metric.GroupInfo.Summary
        printfn "NameInfo.Label  : %s" metric.NameInfo.Label
        printfn "NameInfo.Key    : %s" metric.NameInfo.Key
        printfn "NameInfo.Summary: %s" metric.NameInfo.Summary
        printfn "UnitInfo.Label  : %s" metric.UnitInfo.Label
        printfn "UnitInfo.Key    : %s" metric.UnitInfo.Key
        printfn "UnitInfo.Summary: %s" metric.UnitInfo.Summary


    let dumpMetricData (metric:PerfCounterInfo) = printfn "\t%s (%s) - %A stat,  rollup: %A" 
                                                          (metric.NameInfo.Label) 
                                                          (metric.UnitInfo.Label) 
                                                          (metric.StatsType)
                                                          (metric.RollupType)

    // Break metrics catalog by metric groups
    let metricGroups = metrics |> Seq.map (fun metric -> metric.GroupInfo.Label) |> Set.ofSeq |> Set.toSeq

    // Dump short version of metrics catalog
    metricGroups
    |> Seq.iter (fun group ->  printfn "\n--------------------------------------------------"
                               printfn " Metric Group : %s" group
                               printfn "--------------------------------------------------"
                               metrics
                               |> Seq.filter (fun metric -> metric.GroupInfo.Label = group)
                               |> Seq.iter dumpMetricData)

    // Dump complete version of metrics catalog
    metrics |> Seq.iter dumpAllMetricData

printMetricCatalog()

Here's a dump of the metrics catalog reformatted to display as HTML tables:

VMware vSphere Metrics Catalog

---

CPU

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
CPU Capacity Contention	Percent	rate	average	Percent of time the VMs on this host are unable to run because they are contending for access to the physical CPU(s)
CPU Capacity Demand	MHz	absolute	average	The amount of CPU resources VMs on this host would use if there were no CPU contention or CPU limit
CPU Capacity Entitlement	MHz	absolute	average	CPU resources devoted by the ESX scheduler to virtual machines and resource pools
CPU Capacity Provisioned	MHz	absolute	average	Capacity in MHz of the physical CPU cores
CPU Capacity Usage	MHz	rate	average	CPU usage in MHz during the interval
CPU Core Count Contention	Percent	rate	average	Time the VM is ready to run, but is unable to run due to co-scheduling constraints
CPU Core Count Provisioned	Number	absolute	average	The number of physical cores provisioned to the entity
CPU Core Count Usage	Number	absolute	average	The number of virtual processors running on the host
Co-stop	Millisecond	delta	summation	Time the VM is ready to run, but is unable to due to co-scheduling constraints
Core Utilization	Percent	rate	none	CPU utilization of the corresponding core (if hyper-threading is enabled) as a percentage during the interval (A core is utilized if either or both of its logical CPUs are utilized)
Core Utilization	Percent	rate	average	CPU utilization of the corresponding core (if hyper-threading is enabled) as a percentage during the interval (A core is utilized if either or both of its logical CPUs are utilized)
Core Utilization	Percent	rate	maximum	CPU utilization of the corresponding core (if hyper-threading is enabled) as a percentage during the interval (A core is utilized if either or both of its logical CPUs are utilized)
Core Utilization	Percent	rate	minimum	CPU utilization of the corresponding core (if hyper-threading is enabled) as a percentage during the interval (A core is utilized if either or both of its logical CPUs are utilized)
Demand	MHz	absolute	average	The amount of CPU resources a VM would use if there were no CPU contention or CPU limit
Entitlement	MHz	absolute	latest	CPU resources devoted by the ESX scheduler
Idle	Millisecond	delta	summation	Total time that the CPU spent in an idle state
Latency	Percent	rate	average	Percent of time the VM is unable to run because it is contending for access to the physical CPU(s)
Max limited	Millisecond	delta	summation	Time the VM is ready to run, but is not run due to maxing out its CPU limit setting
Overlap	Millisecond	delta	summation	Time the VM was interrupted to perform system services on behalf of that VM or other VMs
Ready	Millisecond	delta	summation	Percentage of time that the virtual machine was ready, but could not get scheduled to run on the physical CPU
Reserved capacity	MHz	absolute	average	Total CPU capacity reserved by virtual machines
Run	Millisecond	delta	summation	Time the VM is scheduled to run
Swap wait	Millisecond	delta	summation	CPU time spent waiting for swap-in
System	Millisecond	delta	summation	Amount of time spent on system processes on each virtual CPU in the virtual machine
Total	MHz	rate	average	Total amount of CPU resources of all hosts in the cluster
Total capacity	MHz	absolute	average	Total CPU capacity reserved by and available for virtual machines
Usage	Percent	rate	none	CPU usage as a percentage during the interval
Usage	Percent	rate	average	CPU usage as a percentage during the interval
Usage	Percent	rate	minimum	CPU usage as a percentage during the interval
Usage	Percent	rate	maximum	CPU usage as a percentage during the interval
Usage in MHz	MHz	rate	none	CPU usage in megahertz during the interval
Usage in MHz	MHz	rate	average	CPU usage in megahertz during the interval
Usage in MHz	MHz	rate	minimum	CPU usage in megahertz during the interval
Usage in MHz	MHz	rate	maximum	CPU usage in megahertz during the interval
Used	Millisecond	delta	summation	Total CPU usage
Utilization	Percent	rate	none	CPU utilization as a percentage during the interval (CPU usage and CPU utilization may be different due to power management technologies or hyper-threading)
Utilization	Percent	rate	average	CPU utilization as a percentage during the interval (CPU usage and CPU utilization may be different due to power management technologies or hyper-threading)
Utilization	Percent	rate	maximum	CPU utilization as a percentage during the interval (CPU usage and CPU utilization may be different due to power management technologies or hyper-threading)
Utilization	Percent	rate	minimum	CPU utilization as a percentage during the interval (CPU usage and CPU utilization may be different due to power management technologies or hyper-threading)
Wait	Millisecond	delta	summation	Total CPU time spent in wait state
Worst case allocation	MHz	absolute	latest	Amount of CPU resources allocated to the virtual machine or resource pool based on the total cluster capacity and the resource configuration of the resource hierarchy

---

Cluster services

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
CPU fairness	Number	absolute	latest	Fairness of distributed CPU resource allocation
Current failover level	Number	absolute	latest	vSphere HA number of failures that can be tolerated
Effective CPU resources	MHz	rate	average	Total available CPU resources of all hosts within a cluster
Effective memory resources	MB	absolute	average	Total amount of machine memory of all hosts in the cluster that is available for use for virtual machine memory and overhead memory
Memory fairness	Number	absolute	latest	Aggregate available memory resources of all the hosts within a cluster

---

Datastore

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Average read requests per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of read commands issued per second to the datastore during the collection interval
Average write requests per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of write commands issued per second to the datastore during the collection interval
Highest latency	Millisecond	absolute	latest	Highest latency value across all datastores used by the host
Read latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	The average time a read from the datastore takes
Read rate	KBps	rate	average	Rate of reading data from the datastore
Storage DRS datastore bytes read	Number	absolute	latest	Storage DRS datastore bytes read
Storage DRS datastore bytes written	Number	absolute	latest	Storage DRS datastore bytes written
Storage DRS datastore normalized read latency	Number	absolute	latest	Storage DRS datastore normalized read latency
Storage DRS datastore normalized write latency	Number	absolute	latest	Storage DRS datastore normalized write latency
Storage DRS datastore outstanding read requests	Number	absolute	latest	Storage DRS datastore outstanding read requests
Storage DRS datastore outstanding write requests	Number	absolute	latest	Storage DRS datastore outstanding write requests
Storage DRS datastore read I/O rate	Number	absolute	latest	Storage DRS datastore read I/O rate
Storage DRS datastore read workload metric	Number	absolute	latest	Storage DRS datastore metric for read workload model
Storage DRS datastore write I/O rate	Number	absolute	latest	Storage DRS datastore write I/O rate
Storage DRS datastore write workload metric	Number	absolute	latest	Storage DRS datastore metric for write workload model
Storage I/O Control aggregated IOPS	Number	absolute	average	Storage I/O Control aggregated IOPS
Storage I/O Control datastore maximum queue depth	Number	absolute	latest	Storage I/O Control datastore maximum queue depth
Storage I/O Control normalized latency	Microsecond	absolute	average	Storage I/O Control size-normalized I/O latency
Write latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	The average time a write to the datastore takes
Write rate	KBps	rate	average	Rate of writing data to the datastore
busResets	Number	delta	summation	busResets
commandsAborted	Number	delta	summation	commandsAborted
contention	Millisecond	absolute	average	contention
usage	KBps	absolute	average	usage

---

Disk

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Average commands issued per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of SCSI commands issued per second during the collection interval
Average read requests per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of disk reads per second during the collection interval
Average write requests per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of disk writes per second during the collection interval
Bus resets	Number	delta	summation	Number of SCSI-bus reset commands issued during the collection interval
Capacity	KB	absolute	latest	Configured size of the datastore
Command latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time taken during the collection interval to process a SCSI command issued by the Guest OS to the virtual machine
Commands issued	Number	delta	summation	Number of SCSI commands issued during the collection interval
Commands terminated	Number	delta	summation	Number of SCSI commands terminated during the collection interval
Disk SCSI Reservation Conflicts	Number	delta	summation	Number of SCSI reservation conflicts for the LUN during the collection interval
Disk SCSI Reservation Conflicts %	Percent	absolute	average	Number of SCSI reservation conflicts for the LUN as a percent of total commands during the collection interval
Disk Throughput Contention	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time for an I/O operation to complete
Disk Throughput Usage	KBps	rate	average	Aggregated disk I/O rate
Highest latency	Millisecond	absolute	latest	Highest latency value across all disks used by the host
Kernel command latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time, in milliseconds, spent by VMkernel to process each SCSI command
Kernel read latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time, in milliseconds, spent by VMKernel to process each SCSI read command
Kernel write latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time, in milliseconds, spent by VMKernel to process each SCSI write command
Maximum queue depth	Number	absolute	average	Maximum queue depth
Overhead due to delta disk backings	KB	absolute	latest	Storage overhead of a virtual machine or a datastore due to delta disk backings
Physical device command latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time, in milliseconds, to complete a SCSI command from the physical device
Physical device read latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time, in milliseconds, to read from the physical device
Physical device write latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time, in milliseconds, to write to the physical device
Queue command latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time spent in the VMkernel queue, per SCSI command, during the collection interval
Queue read latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time spent in the VMkernel queue, per SCSI read command, during the collection interval
Queue write latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount time spent in the VMkernel queue, per SCSI write command, during the collection interval
Read latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time taken during the collection interval to process a SCSI read command issued from the Guest OS to the virtual machine
Read rate	KBps	rate	average	Average number of kilobytes read from the disk each second during the collection interval
Read requests	Number	delta	summation	Number of disk reads during the collection interval
Space actually used	KB	absolute	latest	Amount of space actually used by the virtual machine or the datastore
Space not shared	KB	absolute	latest	Amount of space associated exclusively with a virtual machine
Space potentially used	KB	absolute	latest	Amount of storage set aside for use by a datastore or a virtual machine
Usage	KBps	rate	none	Aggregated disk I/O rate. For hosts, this metric includes the rates for all virtual machines running on the host during the collection interval.
Usage	KBps	rate	average	Aggregated disk I/O rate. For hosts, this metric includes the rates for all virtual machines running on the host during the collection interval.
Usage	KBps	rate	minimum	Aggregated disk I/O rate. For hosts, this metric includes the rates for all virtual machines running on the host during the collection interval.
Usage	KBps	rate	maximum	Aggregated disk I/O rate. For hosts, this metric includes the rates for all virtual machines running on the host during the collection interval.
Write latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time taken during the collection interval to process a SCSI write command issued by the Guest OS to the virtual machine
Write rate	KBps	rate	average	Average number of kilobytes written to disk each second during the collection interval
Write requests	Number	delta	summation	Number of disk writes during the collection interval
contention	Percent	absolute	average	contention
provisioned	KB	absolute	average	provisioned
usage	KB	absolute	average	usage

---

Management agent

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
CPU usage	MHz	rate	average	Amount of Service Console CPU usage
Memory swap in	KBps	rate	average	Amount of memory that is swapped in for the Service Console
Memory swap out	KBps	rate	average	Amount of memory that is swapped out for the Service Console
Memory swap used	KB	absolute	average	Sum of the memory swapped by all powered-on virtual machines on the host
Memory used	KB	absolute	average	Amount of total configured memory that is available for use

---

Memory

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Active	KB	absolute	none	Amount of memory that is actively used, as estimated by VMkernel based on recently touched memory pages
Active	KB	absolute	average	Amount of memory that is actively used, as estimated by VMkernel based on recently touched memory pages
Active	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of memory that is actively used, as estimated by VMkernel based on recently touched memory pages
Active	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of memory that is actively used, as estimated by VMkernel based on recently touched memory pages
Active write	KB	absolute	average	Amount of memory that is actively being written to by the VM
Balloon	KB	absolute	none	Amount of memory allocated by the virtual machine memory control driver (vmmemctl), which is installed with VMware Tools
Balloon	KB	absolute	average	Amount of memory allocated by the virtual machine memory control driver (vmmemctl), which is installed with VMware Tools
Balloon	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of memory allocated by the virtual machine memory control driver (vmmemctl), which is installed with VMware Tools
Balloon	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of memory allocated by the virtual machine memory control driver (vmmemctl), which is installed with VMware Tools
Balloon target	KB	absolute	none	Target value set by VMkernal for the virtual machine's memory balloon size
Balloon target	KB	absolute	average	Target value set by VMkernal for the virtual machine's memory balloon size
Balloon target	KB	absolute	minimum	Target value set by VMkernal for the virtual machine's memory balloon size
Balloon target	KB	absolute	maximum	Target value set by VMkernal for the virtual machine's memory balloon size
Compressed	KB	absolute	average	Amount of memory compressed by ESX
Compression rate	KBps	rate	average	Rate of memory compression for the VM
Consumed	KB	absolute	none	Amount of memory consumed by a virtual machine, host, or cluster
Consumed	KB	absolute	average	Amount of memory consumed by a virtual machine, host, or cluster
Consumed	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of memory consumed by a virtual machine, host, or cluster
Consumed	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of memory consumed by a virtual machine, host, or cluster
Decompression rate	KBps	rate	average	Rate of memory decompression for the VM
Entitlement	KB	absolute	average	Amount of host physical memory the VM is entitled to, as determined by the ESX scheduler
Granted	KB	absolute	none	Amount of machine memory or physical memory that is mapped for a virtual machine or a host
Granted	KB	absolute	average	Amount of machine memory or physical memory that is mapped for a virtual machine or a host
Granted	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of machine memory or physical memory that is mapped for a virtual machine or a host
Granted	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of machine memory or physical memory that is mapped for a virtual machine or a host
Heap	KB	absolute	none	VMkernel virtual address space dedicated to VMkernel main heap and related data
Heap	KB	absolute	average	VMkernel virtual address space dedicated to VMkernel main heap and related data
Heap	KB	absolute	minimum	VMkernel virtual address space dedicated to VMkernel main heap and related data
Heap	KB	absolute	maximum	VMkernel virtual address space dedicated to VMkernel main heap and related data
Heap free	KB	absolute	none	Free address space in the VMkernel's main heap
Heap free	KB	absolute	average	Free address space in the VMkernel's main heap
Heap free	KB	absolute	minimum	Free address space in the VMkernel's main heap
Heap free	KB	absolute	maximum	Free address space in the VMkernel's main heap
Host cache used for swapping	KB	absolute	none	Space used for caching swapped pages in the host cache
Host cache used for swapping	KB	absolute	average	Space used for caching swapped pages in the host cache
Host cache used for swapping	KB	absolute	maximum	Space used for caching swapped pages in the host cache
Host cache used for swapping	KB	absolute	minimum	Space used for caching swapped pages in the host cache
Latency	Percent	rate	average	Percentage of time the VM is waiting to access swapped or compressed memory
Low free threshold	KB	absolute	average	Threshold of free host physical memory below which ESX will begin reclaiming memory from VMs through ballooning and swapping
Memory Capacity Contention	Percent	rate	average	Percentage of time the VM is waiting to access swapped, compressed, or ballooned memory
Memory Capacity Entitlement	KB	absolute	average	Amount of host physical memory the VM is entitled to, as determined by the ESX scheduler
Memory Capacity Provisioned	KB	absolute	average	Total amount of memory configured for the VM
Memory Capacity Usable	KB	absolute	average	Amount of physical memory available for use by virtual machines on this host
Memory Capacity Usage	KB	absolute	average	Amount of physical memory actively used
Memory Consumed by VMs	KB	absolute	average	Amount of physical memory consumed by VMs on this host
Memory Consumed by userworlds	KB	absolute	average	Amount of physical memory consumed by userworlds on this host
Memory Reserved Capacity %	Percent	absolute	average	Percent of memory that has been reserved either through VMkernel use, by userworlds, or due to VM memory reservations
Memory saved by zipping	KB	absolute	latest	Memory (KB) saved due to memory zipping
Overhead	KB	absolute	none	Memory (KB) consumed by the virtualization infrastructure for running the VM
Overhead	KB	absolute	average	Memory (KB) consumed by the virtualization infrastructure for running the VM
Overhead	KB	absolute	minimum	Memory (KB) consumed by the virtualization infrastructure for running the VM
Overhead	KB	absolute	maximum	Memory (KB) consumed by the virtualization infrastructure for running the VM
Overhead touched	KB	absolute	average	Actively touched overhead memory (KB) reserved for use as the virtualization overhead for the VM
Reserved capacity	MB	absolute	average	Total amount of memory reservation used by powered-on virtual machines and vSphere services on the host
Reserved overhead	KB	absolute	average	Memory (KB) reserved for use as the virtualization overhead for the VM
Shared	KB	absolute	none	Amount of guest memory that is shared with other virtual machines, relative to a single virtual machine or to all powered-on virtual machines on a host
Shared	KB	absolute	average	Amount of guest memory that is shared with other virtual machines, relative to a single virtual machine or to all powered-on virtual machines on a host
Shared	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of guest memory that is shared with other virtual machines, relative to a single virtual machine or to all powered-on virtual machines on a host
Shared	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of guest memory that is shared with other virtual machines, relative to a single virtual machine or to all powered-on virtual machines on a host
Shared common	KB	absolute	none	Amount of machine memory that is shared by all powered-on virtual machines and vSphere services on the host
Shared common	KB	absolute	average	Amount of machine memory that is shared by all powered-on virtual machines and vSphere services on the host
Shared common	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of machine memory that is shared by all powered-on virtual machines and vSphere services on the host
Shared common	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of machine memory that is shared by all powered-on virtual machines and vSphere services on the host
State	Number	absolute	latest	One of four threshold levels representing the percentage of free memory on the host. The counter value determines swapping and ballooning behavior for memory reclamation.
Swap in	KB	absolute	none	Amount swapped-in to memory from disk
Swap in	KB	absolute	average	Amount swapped-in to memory from disk
Swap in	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount swapped-in to memory from disk
Swap in	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount swapped-in to memory from disk
Swap in from host cache	KB	absolute	none	Amount of memory swapped-in from host cache
Swap in from host cache	KB	absolute	average	Amount of memory swapped-in from host cache
Swap in from host cache	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of memory swapped-in from host cache
Swap in from host cache	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of memory swapped-in from host cache
Swap in rate	KBps	rate	average	Rate at which memory is swapped from disk into active memory during the interval
Swap in rate from host cache	KBps	rate	average	Rate at which memory is being swapped from host cache into active memory
Swap out	KB	absolute	none	Amount of memory swapped-out to disk
Swap out	KB	absolute	average	Amount of memory swapped-out to disk
Swap out	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of memory swapped-out to disk
Swap out	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of memory swapped-out to disk
Swap out rate	KBps	rate	average	Rate at which memory is being swapped from active memory to disk during the current interval
Swap out rate to host cache	KBps	rate	average	Rate at which memory is being swapped from active memory to host cache
Swap out to host cache	KB	absolute	none	Amount of memory swapped-out to host cache
Swap out to host cache	KB	absolute	average	Amount of memory swapped-out to host cache
Swap out to host cache	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of memory swapped-out to host cache
Swap out to host cache	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of memory swapped-out to host cache
Swap target	KB	absolute	none	Target size for the virtual machine swap file
Swap target	KB	absolute	average	Target size for the virtual machine swap file
Swap target	KB	absolute	minimum	Target size for the virtual machine swap file
Swap target	KB	absolute	maximum	Target size for the virtual machine swap file
Swap unreserved	KB	absolute	none	Amount of memory that is unreserved by swap
Swap unreserved	KB	absolute	average	Amount of memory that is unreserved by swap
Swap unreserved	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of memory that is unreserved by swap
Swap unreserved	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of memory that is unreserved by swap
Swap used	KB	absolute	none	Amount of memory that is used by swap
Swap used	KB	absolute	average	Amount of memory that is used by swap
Swap used	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of memory that is used by swap
Swap used	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of memory that is used by swap
Swapped	KB	absolute	none	Current amount of guest physical memory swapped out to the virtual machine's swap file by the VMkernel
Swapped	KB	absolute	average	Current amount of guest physical memory swapped out to the virtual machine's swap file by the VMkernel
Swapped	KB	absolute	minimum	Current amount of guest physical memory swapped out to the virtual machine's swap file by the VMkernel
Swapped	KB	absolute	maximum	Current amount of guest physical memory swapped out to the virtual machine's swap file by the VMkernel
Total	MB	absolute	average	Total amount of machine memory of all hosts in the cluster that is available for virtual machine memory (physical memory for use by the Guest OS) and virtual machine overhead memory
Total capacity	MB	absolute	average	Total amount of memory reservation used by and available for powered-on virtual machines and vSphere services on the host
Unreserved	KB	absolute	none	Amount of memory that is unreserved
Unreserved	KB	absolute	average	Amount of memory that is unreserved
Unreserved	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of memory that is unreserved
Unreserved	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of memory that is unreserved
Usage	Percent	absolute	none	Memory usage as percentage of total configured or available memory
Usage	Percent	absolute	average	Memory usage as percentage of total configured or available memory
Usage	Percent	absolute	minimum	Memory usage as percentage of total configured or available memory
Usage	Percent	absolute	maximum	Memory usage as percentage of total configured or available memory
Used by VMkernel	KB	absolute	none	Amount of machine memory used by VMkernel for core functionality, such as device drivers and other internal uses
Used by VMkernel	KB	absolute	average	Amount of machine memory used by VMkernel for core functionality, such as device drivers and other internal uses
Used by VMkernel	KB	absolute	maximum	Amount of machine memory used by VMkernel for core functionality, such as device drivers and other internal uses
Used by VMkernel	KB	absolute	minimum	Amount of machine memory used by VMkernel for core functionality, such as device drivers and other internal uses
Worst case allocation	MB	absolute	latest	Memory allocation as calculated by the VMkernel scheduler based on current estimated demand and reservation, limit, and shares policies set for all virtual machines and resource pools in the host or cluster
Zero	KB	absolute	none	Memory that contains 0s only
Zero	KB	absolute	average	Memory that contains 0s only
Zero	KB	absolute	minimum	Memory that contains 0s only
Zero	KB	absolute	maximum	Memory that contains 0s only
Zipped memory	KB	absolute	latest	Memory (KB) zipped
swapIn	KB	absolute	none	swapIn
swapIn	KB	absolute	average	swapIn
swapIn	KB	absolute	minimum	swapIn
swapIn	KB	absolute	maximum	swapIn
swapOut	KB	absolute	none	swapOut
swapOut	KB	absolute	average	swapOut
swapOut	KB	absolute	minimum	swapOut
swapOut	KB	absolute	maximum	swapOut
userworld	KB	absolute	average	userworld
userworld	KB	absolute	average	userworld
vm	KB	absolute	average	vm
vm	KB	absolute	average	vm
vmOvhd	KB	absolute	average	vmOvhd
vmOvrhd	KB	absolute	average	vmOvrhd
vmkOvrhd	KB	absolute	average	vmkOvrhd
vmkOvrhd	KB	absolute	average	vmkOvrhd

---

Network

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Broadcast receives	Number	delta	summation	Number of broadcast packets received during the sampling interval
Broadcast transmits	Number	delta	summation	Number of broadcast packets transmitted during the sampling interval
Data receive rate	KBps	rate	average	Average rate at which data was received during the interval
Data receive rate	KBps	rate	average	Average amount of data received per second
Data transmit rate	KBps	rate	average	Average rate at which data was transmitted during the interval
Data transmit rate	KBps	rate	average	Average amount of data transmitted per second
Multicast receives	Number	delta	summation	Number of multicast packets received during the sampling interval
Multicast transmits	Number	delta	summation	Number of multicast packets transmitted during the sampling interval
Packet receive errors	Number	delta	summation	Number of packets with errors received during the sampling interval
Packet transmit errors	Number	delta	summation	Number of packets with errors transmitted during the sampling interval
Packets received	Number	delta	summation	Number of packets received during the interval
Packets transmitted	Number	delta	summation	Number of packets transmitted during the interval
Receive packets dropped	Number	delta	summation	Number of receives dropped
Transmit packets dropped	Number	delta	summation	Number of transmits dropped
Unknown protocol frames	Number	delta	summation	Number of frames with unknown protocol received during the sampling interval
Usage	KBps	rate	none	Network utilization (combined transmit-rates and receive-rates) during the interval
Usage	KBps	rate	average	Network utilization (combined transmit-rates and receive-rates) during the interval
Usage	KBps	rate	minimum	Network utilization (combined transmit-rates and receive-rates) during the interval
Usage	KBps	rate	maximum	Network utilization (combined transmit-rates and receive-rates) during the interval
pNic Packets Received and Transmitted per Second	Number	rate	average	Average rate of packets received and transmitted per second
pNic Throughput Provisioned	KBps	absolute	average	Provisioned pNic I/O Throughput
pNic Throughput Usable	KBps	absolute	average	Usable pNic I/O Throughput
pNic Throughput Usage for FT	KBps	rate	average	Average pNic I/O rate for FT
pNic Throughput Usage for NFS	KBps	rate	average	Average pNic I/O rate for NFS
pNic Throughput Usage for VMs	KBps	rate	average	Average pNic I/O rate for VMs
pNic Throughput Usage for VR	KBps	rate	average	Average pNic I/O rate for VR
pNic Throughput Usage for iSCSI	KBps	rate	average	Average pNic I/O rate for iSCSI
pNic Throughput Usage for vMotion	KBps	rate	average	Average pNic I/O rate for vMotion
vNic Throughput Contention	Number	delta	summation	Count of vNic packet drops
vNic Throughput Usage	KBps	rate	average	Average vNic I/O rate

---

Power

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Cap	Watt	absolute	average	Maximum allowed power usage
Energy usage	Joule	delta	summation	Total energy used since last stats reset
Host Power Capacity Provisioned	Percent	absolute	average	Current power usage as a percentage of maximum allowed power
Host Power Capacity Usable	Watt	absolute	average	Current maximum allowed power usage
Power Capacity Usage	Watt	absolute	average	Current power usage
Usage	Watt	rate	average	Current power usage

---

Resource group CPU

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Active (1 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU active average over 1 minute
Active (1 min. peak)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU active peak over 1 minute
Active (15 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU active average over 15 minutes
Active (15 min. peak)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU active peak over 15 minutes
Active (5 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU active average over 5 minutes
Active (5 min. peak)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU active peak over 5 minutes
Group CPU sample count	Number	absolute	latest	Group CPU sample count
Group CPU sample period	Millisecond	absolute	latest	Group CPU sample period
Running (1 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU running average over 1 minute
Running (1 min. peak)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU running peak over 1 minute
Running (15 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU running average over 15 minutes
Running (15 min. peak)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU running peak over 15 minutes
Running (5 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU running average over 5 minutes
Running (5 min. peak)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU running peak over 5 minutes
Throttled (1 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	Amount of CPU resources over the limit that were refused, average over 1 minute
Throttled (15 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	Amount of CPU resources over the limit that were refused, average over 15 minutes
Throttled (5 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	Amount of CPU resources over the limit that were refused, average over 5 minutes

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Storage adapter

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Average commands issued per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of commands issued per second by the storage adapter during the collection interval
Average read requests per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of read commands issued per second by the storage adapter during the collection interval
Average write requests per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of write commands issued per second by the storage adapter during the collection interval
Highest latency	Millisecond	absolute	latest	Highest latency value across all storage adapters used by the host
Read latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	The average time a read by the storage adapter takes
Read rate	KBps	rate	average	Rate of reading data by the storage adapter
Storage Adapter Number Queued	Number	absolute	average	The current number of I/Os that are waiting to be issued
Storage Adapter Outstanding I/Os	Percent	absolute	average	The percent of I/Os that have been issued but have not yet completed
Storage Adapter Outstanding I/Os	Number	absolute	average	The number of I/Os that have been issued but have not yet completed
Storage Adapter Queue Command Latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time spent in the VMkernel queue, per SCSI command, during the collection interval
Storage Adapter Queue Depth	Number	absolute	average	The maximum number of I/Os that can be outstanding at a given time
Storage Adapter Throughput Contention	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time for an I/O operation to complete
Storage Adapter Throughput Usage	KBps	rate	average	The storage adapter's I/O rate
Write latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	The average time a write by the storage adapter takes
Write rate	KBps	rate	average	Rate of writing data by the storage adapter

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Storage path

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Average commands issued per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of commands issued per second on the storage path during the collection interval
Average read requests per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of read commands issued per second on the storage path during the collection interval
Average write requests per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of write commands issued per second on the storage path during the collection interval
Highest latency	Millisecond	absolute	latest	Highest latency value across all storage paths used by the host
Read latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	The average time a read issued on the storage path takes
Read rate	KBps	rate	average	Rate of reading data on the storage path
Storage Path Bus Resets	Number	delta	summation	Number of SCSI-bus reset commands issued during the collection interval
Storage Path Command Aborts	Number	delta	summation	Number of SCSI commands aborted during the collection interval
Storage Path Throughput Contention	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time for an I/O operation to complete
Storage Path Throughput Usage	KBps	rate	average	Storage path I/O rate
Write latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	The average time a write issued on the storage path takes
Write rate	KBps	rate	average	Rate of writing data on the storage path

---

System

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Disk usage	Percent	absolute	latest	Amount of disk space usage for each mount point
Heartbeat	Number	delta	summation	Number of heartbeats issued per virtual machine during the interval
Heartbeat	Number	absolute	latest	Number of heartbeats issued per virtual machine during the interval
OS Uptime	Second	absolute	latest	Total time elapsed, in seconds, since last operating system boot-up
Resource CPU active (1 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU active average over 1 minute of the system resource group
Resource CPU active (5 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU active average over 5 minutes of the system resource group
Resource CPU allocation maximum, in MHz	MHz	absolute	latest	CPU allocation limit, in MHz, of the system resource group
Resource CPU allocation minimum, in MHz	MHz	absolute	latest	CPU allocation reservation, in MHz, of the system resource group
Resource CPU allocation shares	Number	absolute	latest	CPU allocation shares of the system resource group
Resource CPU maximum limited (1 min.)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU maximum limited over 1 minute of the system resource group
Resource CPU maximum limited (5 min.)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU maximum limited over 5 minutes of the system resource group
Resource CPU running (1 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU running average over 1 minute of the system resource group
Resource CPU running (5 min. average)	Percent	absolute	latest	CPU running average over 5 minutes of the system resource group
Resource CPU usage (Average)	MHz	rate	average	Amount of CPU used by the Service Console and other applications during the interval
Resource CPU usage (Maximum)	MHz	rate	maximum	Amount of CPU used by the Service Console and other applications during the interval
Resource CPU usage (Minimum)	MHz	rate	minimum	Amount of CPU used by the Service Console and other applications during the interval
Resource CPU usage (None)	MHz	rate	none	Amount of CPU used by the Service Console and other applications during the interval
Resource memory allocation maximum, in KB	KB	absolute	latest	Memory allocation limit, in KB, of the system resource group
Resource memory allocation minimum, in KB	KB	absolute	latest	Memory allocation reservation, in KB, of the system resource group
Resource memory allocation shares	Number	absolute	latest	Memory allocation shares of the system resource group
Resource memory mapped	KB	absolute	latest	Memory mapped by the system resource group
Resource memory overhead	KB	absolute	latest	Overhead memory consumed by the system resource group
Resource memory share saved	KB	absolute	latest	Memory saved due to sharing by the system resource group
Resource memory shared	KB	absolute	latest	Memory shared by the system resource group
Resource memory swapped	KB	absolute	latest	Memory swapped out by the system resource group
Resource memory touched	KB	absolute	latest	Memory touched by the system resource group
Resource memory zero	KB	absolute	latest	Zero filled memory used by the system resource group
Uptime	Second	absolute	latest	Total time elapsed, in seconds, since last system startup

---

Virtual disk

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Average number of outstanding read requests	Number	absolute	latest	Average number of outstanding read requests to the virtual disk during the collection interval
Average number of outstanding write requests	Number	absolute	latest	Average number of outstanding write requests to the virtual disk during the collection interval
Average read requests per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of read commands issued per second to the virtual disk during the collection interval
Average write requests per second	Number	rate	average	Average number of write commands issued per second to the virtual disk during the collection interval
Read latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	The average time a read from the virtual disk takes
Read rate	KBps	rate	average	Rate of reading data from the virtual disk
Read workload metric	Number	absolute	latest	Storage DRS virtual disk metric for the read workload model
Virtual Disk Throughput Contention	Millisecond	absolute	average	Average amount of time for an I/O operation to complete
Virtual Disk Throughput Usage	KBps	rate	average	Virtual disk I/O rate
Write latency	Millisecond	absolute	average	The average time a write to the virtual disk takes
Write rate	KBps	rate	average	Rate of writing data to the virtual disk
Write workload metric	Number	absolute	latest	Storage DRS virtual disk metric for the write workload model
busResets	Number	delta	summation	busResets
commandsAborted	Number	delta	summation	commandsAborted

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Virtual machine operations

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Storage vMotion count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of migrations with Storage vMotion (datastore change operations for powered-on VMs)
VM clone count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine clone operations
VM create count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine create operations
VM datastore change count (non-powered-on VMs)	Number	absolute	latest	Number of datastore change operations for powered-off and suspended virtual machines
VM delete count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine delete operations
VM guest reboot count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine guest reboot operations
VM guest shutdown count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine guest shutdown operations
VM host and datastore change count (non-powered-on VMs)	Number	absolute	latest	Number of host and datastore change operations for powered-off and suspended virtual machines
VM host change count (non-powered-on VMs)	Number	absolute	latest	Number of host change operations for powered-off and suspended VMs
VM power off count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine power off operations
VM power on count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine power on operations
VM reconfigure count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine reconfigure operations
VM register count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine register operations
VM reset count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine reset operations
VM standby guest count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine standby guest operations
VM suspend count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine suspend operations
VM template deploy count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine template deploy operations
VM unregister count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of virtual machine unregister operations
vMotion count	Number	absolute	latest	Number of migrations with vMotion (host change operations for powered-on VMs)

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vCenter debugging information

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Activation count	Number	absolute	maximum	Activation operations in vCenter
Activation count	Number	absolute	minimum	Activation operations in vCenter
Activation count	Number	absolute	summation	Activation operations in vCenter
Activation latency	Millisecond	absolute	maximum	The latency of an activation operation in vCenter
Activation latency	Millisecond	absolute	minimum	The latency of an activation operation in vCenter
Activation latency	Millisecond	absolute	summation	The latency of an activation operation in vCenter
Host sync count	Number	absolute	maximum	The number of host sync operations in vCenter
Host sync count	Number	absolute	minimum	The number of host sync operations in vCenter
Host sync count	Number	absolute	summation	The number of host sync operations in vCenter
Host sync latency	Millisecond	absolute	maximum	The latency of a host sync operation in vCenter
Host sync latency	Millisecond	absolute	minimum	The latency of a host sync operation in vCenter
Host sync latency	Millisecond	absolute	summation	The latency of a host sync operation in vCenter
Inventory statistics	Number	absolute	maximum	vCenter inventory statistics
Inventory statistics	Number	absolute	minimum	vCenter inventory statistics
Inventory statistics	Number	absolute	summation	vCenter inventory statistics
Locking statistics	Number	absolute	maximum	vCenter locking statistics
Locking statistics	Number	absolute	minimum	vCenter locking statistics
Locking statistics	Number	absolute	summation	vCenter locking statistics
Managed object reference statistics	Number	absolute	maximum	Managed object reference counts in vCenter
Managed object reference statistics	Number	absolute	minimum	Managed object reference counts in vCenter
Managed object reference statistics	Number	absolute	summation	Managed object reference counts in vCenter
Miscellaneous	Number	absolute	maximum	Miscellaneous statistics
Miscellaneous	Number	absolute	minimum	Miscellaneous statistics
Miscellaneous	Number	absolute	summation	Miscellaneous statistics
Scoreboard statistics	Number	absolute	maximum	Object counts in vCenter
Scoreboard statistics	Number	absolute	minimum	Object counts in vCenter
Scoreboard statistics	Number	absolute	summation	Object counts in vCenter
Session statistics	Number	absolute	maximum	The statistics of client sessions connected to vCenter
Session statistics	Number	absolute	minimum	The statistics of client sessions connected to vCenter
Session statistics	Number	absolute	summation	The statistics of client sessions connected to vCenter
System statistics	Number	absolute	maximum	The statistics of vCenter as a running system such as thread statistics and heap statistics
System statistics	Number	absolute	minimum	The statistics of vCenter as a running system such as thread statistics and heap statistics
System statistics	Number	absolute	summation	The statistics of vCenter as a running system such as thread statistics and heap statistics
vCenter LRO statistics	Number	absolute	maximum	vCenter LRO statistics
vCenter LRO statistics	Number	absolute	minimum	vCenter LRO statistics
vCenter LRO statistics	Number	absolute	summation	vCenter LRO statistics
vCenter service statistics	Number	absolute	maximum	vCenter service statistics such as events, alarms, and tasks
vCenter service statistics	Number	absolute	minimum	vCenter service statistics such as events, alarms, and tasks
vCenter service statistics	Number	absolute	summation	vCenter service statistics such as events, alarms, and tasks

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vCenter resource usage information

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
CPU privileged	Percent	rate	average	CPU used by vCenter in privileged mode
CPU process	Percent	rate	average	Total CPU used by vCenter
CPU queue length	Number	absolute	average	Processor queue length on the system where vCenter is running
CPU system	Percent	rate	average	Total system CPU used on the system where vCenter in running
CPU user	Percent	rate	average	CPU used by vCenter in user mode
Context switch rate	Number	rate	average	Number of context switches per second on the system where vCenter is running
Disk bytes read rate	Number	rate	average	Number of bytes read from the disk per second on the system where vCenter is running
Disk bytes written rate	Number	rate	average	Number of bytes written to the disk per second on the system where vCenter is running
Disk queue length	Number	absolute	average	Disk queue length on the system where vCenter is running
Disk read rate	Number	rate	average	Number of disk reads per second on the system where vCenter is running
Disk write rate	Number	rate	average	Number of disk writes per second on the system where vCenter is running
Network queue length	Number	absolute	average	Network queue length on the system where vCenter is running
Network usage	Percent	rate	average	Total network bytes received and sent per second on the system where vCenter is running
Page fault rate	Number	rate	average	Number of page faults per second on the system where vCenter is running
Physical memory	KB	absolute	average	Physical memory used by vCenter
Pool non-paged bytes	KB	absolute	average	Memory pooled for non-paged bytes on the system where vCenter is running
Pool paged bytes	KB	absolute	average	Memory pooled for paged bytes on the system where vCenter is running
Process handles	Number	absolute	average	Handles used by vCenter
Process threads	Number	absolute	average	Number of threads used by vCenter
Received packet rate	Number	rate	average	Rate of the number of total packets received per second on the system where vCenter is running
Sent packet rate	Number	rate	average	Number of total packets sent per second on the system where vCenter is running
System call rate	Number	rate	average	Number of systems calls made per second on the system where vCenter is running
System threads	Number	absolute	average	Number of threads on the system where vCenter is running
Total packet rate	Number	rate	average	Number of total packets sent and received per second on the system where vCenter is running
Virtual memory	KB	absolute	average	Virtual memory used by vCenter

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vSphere Replication

Metric	Unit	Stats Type	Rollup	Description
Replication Data Receive Rate	KBps	rate	average	Average amount of data received per second
Replication Data Transmit Rate	KBps	rate	average	Average amount of data transmitted per second
vSphere Replication VM Count	Number	absolute	average	Current Number of Replicated VMs