Monitoring performance for Virtual Server
Monitoring performance
Monitoring performance is a necessary part of preventive maintenance for Virtual Server 2005. Through monitoring, you obtain performance data that is useful in diagnosing system problems and in planning for the growth in demand for system resources.
For monitoring the performance of the host operating system and guest operating systems, you can use standard tools, such as Performance Logs and Alerts. For monitoring the performance of virtual machines and virtual networks, Virtual Server provides Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) objects.
You can monitor performance by running scripts from the command line that collect information from the WMI objects. You can run scripts periodically, either manually or by using automated scheduling. There are no management tools for viewing Virtual Server performance information directly; however, you can use the WMI tester to view WMI objects. For information about using the WMI Tester to view and modify WMI objects, see "Windows Management Instrumentation Tester overview" in Help and Support Center for the Windows Server 2003 operating systems.
Note
Changes have been made to the product that affect this information. For updated information, see the Virtual Server 2005 Release Notes.
The Virtual Server WMI objects
The Virtual Server WMI class includes two objects, VirtualMachine and VirtualNetwork. The WMI counters in the VirtualMachine object allow you to obtain information about CPU, disk, and network usage by each virtual machine, as well as the number of heartbeats received. The WMI counters in the VirtualNetwork object allow you to monitor the usage of each virtual network.
VirtualMachine counters
The following table describes the WMI counters in the VirtualMachine object.
| Counter | Information |
|---|---|
Name |
Name of the virtual machine. |
CpuUtilization |
Percentage of CPU resources allocated to this virtual machine that are currently in use. A zero indicates that the virtual machine may not be running. A 100 indicates that the virtual machine is consuming all currently allocated resources. |
DiskBytesRead |
Number of bytes read by all of the virtual hard disks assigned to this virtual machine since the virtual machine was last turned on. |
DiskSpaceUsed |
Total disk space used by this virtual machine on all of the disks that are assigned to it. |
DiskBytesWritten |
Number of bytes written by all virtual hard disks assigned to this virtual machine. |
HeartbeatCount |
Number of heartbeats received since the virtual machine was last turned on. |
HeartbeatInterval |
Duration of the heartbeat interval in seconds. This data is used by the HeartbeatPercentage counter. |
HeartbeatPercentage |
Percentage of total expected heartbeats that have been received in the last heartbeat interval. A HeartbeatPercentage of zero may indicate a problem with the guest operating system. A number greater than zero, but less than 100 may indicate that a heavy input/output (I/O) load is causing the heartbeat not to transmit. |
HeartbeatRate |
The number of heartbeats expected per heartbeat interval. This data is used by the HeartbeatPercentage counter. |
NetworkBytesSent |
Total bytes sent by all virtual networks assigned to this virtual machine. This is a cumulative total. |
NetworkBytesReceived |
Total bytes received by all virtual networks assigned to this virtual machine. This is a cumulative total. |
PhysicalMemoryAllocated |
The system memory allocated to this virtual machine. This figure includes 4 MB of video RAM (VRAM). It does not include the additional 32 MB of "overhead" memory used by each virtual machine in addition to the memory that is allocated to it. If a virtual machine is functioning poorly, you can check this number to make sure that sufficient memory is allocated. |
Uptime |
Number of seconds that the virtual machine has been running since it was last turned on. |
Note
The WMI objects do not obtain cumulative totals for all virtual machines and the host operating system. To view the total CPU resources and total system memory currently being used by the host operating system and running virtual machines, you must use Windows Task Manager.
VirtualNetwork counters
The following table describes the WMI counters in the VirtualNetwork object. You can obtain the information described in this table only for a virtual network that meets the following conditions:
- It is attached to a physical network adapter.
- It has running virtual machines attached to it.
| Counter | Information |
|---|---|
Name |
Name of the physical network adapter to which this virtual network is attached. |
BytesDropped |
Number of bytes dropped by this virtual network. Any number above zero indicates a virtual network failure. |
BytesReceived |
Total bytes received by this virtual network since the first virtual machine attached to it was turned on. |
BytesSent |
Total bytes sent by this virtual network since the first virtual machine attached to it was turned on. |
PacketsDropped |
Number of packets of data dropped by this virtual network. Any number above zero indicates a virtual network failure. |
PacketsReceived |
Total packets of data received by this virtual network since the first virtual machine attached to it was turned on. |
PacketsSent |
Total packets of data sent by this virtual network since the first virtual machine attached to it was turned on. |
More information
For a description of the WMI class implemented for Virtual Server, see Virtual Server WMI class. For background information about WMI, see "Windows Management Instrumentation overview" in Help and Support Center for the Windows Server 2003 operating systems. For information about using the command-line interface to WMI, see "Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line overview," also in Help and Support Center.