VMware 4817V62 Administration Guide - Page 266

vSphere Basic System Administration Collection Levels Each collection interval has a default collection level that determines how many data counters are used when collecting statistics data. The collection level establishes which metrics are retrieved and recorded in the vCenter Server database. You can assign a collection level of 1- 4 to each collection interval, with level 4 having the largest number of counters. By default, all collection intervals use collection level 1. The collection level for an interval cannot be greater than the collection level set for the preceding collection interval. For example, if the Month interval is set to collection level 3, the Year interval can be set to collection level 1, 2, or 3, but not to collection level 4. This is a vCenter Server dependency. Table 22-4 describes each collection level and provides recommendations on when to use them. Table 22-4. Collection Levels Level Metrics Best Practice Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 n Cluster Services (VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler) - all metrics n CPU - cpuentitlement, totalmhz, usage (average), usagemhz n Disk - capacity, maxTotalLatency, provisioned, unshared, usage (average), used n Memory - consumed, mementitlement, overhead, swapinRate, swapoutRate, swapused, totalmb, usage (average), vmmemctl (balloon) n Network - usage (average) n System - heartbeat, uptime n Virtual Machine Operations - numChangeDS, numChangeHost, numChangeHostDS Use for long-term performance monitoring when device statistics are not required. Level 1 is the default Collection Level for all Collection Intervals. n Level 1 metrics Use for long-term performance n CPU - idle, reservedCapacity monitoring when device statistics are n Disk - All metrics, excluding numberRead and numberWrite. not required but you want to monitor n Memory - All metrics, excluding memUsed and maximum more than the basic statistics. and minimum rollup values. n Virtual Machine Operations - All metrics n Level 1 and Level 2 metrics n Metrics for all counters, excluding minimum and maximum rollup values. n Device metrics Use for short-term performance monitoring after encountering problems or when device statistics are required. Due to the large quantity of troubleshooting data retrieved and recorded, use level 3 for the shortest time period possible- the Day or Week collection interval. Level 4 All metrics supported by the vCenter Server, including minimum and maximum rollup values. Use for short-term performance monitoring after encountering problems or when device statistics are required. Due to the large quantity of troubleshooting data retrieved and recorded, use level 4 for the shortest amount of time possible. Generally, you need to use only collection levels 1 and 2 for performance monitoring and analysis. Levels 3 and 4 provide granularity that is generally useful only for developers. Unless vCenter Server is set to a collection level that contains a data counter, the data for that counter is not stored in the database nor is it rolled up into a past-day statistic on the ESX/ESXi host. The counter will not appear in the performance charts. 266 VMware, Inc.