eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by VCDisvSwitPortTest

A vSphere distributed vSwitch act as a single virtual switch across all associated hosts. This allows virtual machines to maintain a consistent network configuration as they migrate across hosts. A distributed port group is a port group associated with a vSphere distributed switch and specifies port configuration option for each member of port. Distributed port groups define how a connection is made through the vSphere distributed switch in a network. Uplink ports connect a vSphere distributed switch to physical NICs on associated ESX\ESXi hosts. The number of uplinks on a vSphere distributed switch is the maximum number of allowed physical connections to the vSphere distributed switch per host.

This test auto-discovers the virtual ports of the vSphere Distributed Switch and reports the current state of each virtual path. This test also alerts the administrators if a virtual port is blocked and if the DirectPath I/O is active on a virtual port. By continously monitoring the virtual ports, administrators can track the traffic through each virtual port and quickly identify the virtual port that is handling the maximum amount of traffic in terms of multicast packets, broadcast packets etc. Administrators can also figure out the virtual port that is dropping the maximum number of packets upon transmission and reception.

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each vSphere Distribued Switch:Distributed Virtual Port Group:Virtual Port of the target VMware vCenter server being monitored.

The measures made by this test are as follows:

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
Is_blocked Indicates whether/not this virtual port is blocked.   The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:

Measure value Numeric Value
Yes 1
No 0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether/not the virtual port is blocked. The graph of this measure however is represented using the numeric equivalents only - 0 or 1.
Is_linkedUp Indicates the current state of this virtual port.   The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:

Measure value Numeric Value
Link Up 1
Link Down 0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current state of the virtual port. The graph of this measure however is represented using the numeric equivalents only - 0 or 1.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure indicates the name of the entity (server/VM/host) to which the port is connected, MAC Address and vLan ID of the port.

Is_Directpath Indicates whether the DirectPath I/O to the virtual machine is active on this virtual port.   The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:

Measure value Numeric Value
Active 1
Inactive 0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether the DirectPath I/O to the virtual machine is active on the virtual port. The graph of this measure however is represented using the numeric equivalents only - 0 or 1.
data_InBroadcast Indicates the rate at which data was received as boadcast packets by this virtual port during the last measurement period. KB/sec Compare the value of these measures across the virtual ports to identify the virtual port through which maximum amount of data was sent/received as broadcast packets.
data_OutBroadcast Indicates the rate at which data was sent as broadcast packets through this virtual port during the last measurement period. KB/sec
data_InMulticast Indicates the rate at which data was received as multicast packets by this virtual port during the last measurement period. KB/sec Compare the value of these measures across the virtual ports to identify the virtual port through which maximum amount of data was sent/received as multicast packets.
data_OutMulticast Indicates the rate at which data was sent as multicast packets through this virtual port during the last measurement period. KB/sec
data_InUnicast Indicates the rate at which data was received as unicast packets by this virtual port during the last measurement period. KB/sec Compare the value of these measures across the virtual ports to identify the virtual port through which maximum amount of data was sent/received as unicast packets.
data_OutUnicast Indicates the rate at which data was sent as unicast packets through this virtual port during the last measurement period. KB/sec
pack_InBroadcast Indicates the rate at which broadcast packets were received by this virtual port during the last measurement period. Packets/sec Compare the value of these measures across the virtual ports to identify the virtual port through which maximum number of broadcast packets were sent/received.
pack_OutBroadcast Indicates the rate at which broadcast packets were sent through this virtual port during the last measurement period. Packets/sec
pack_InMulticast Indicates the rate at which multicast packets were received by this virtual port during the last measurement period. Packets/sec Compare the value of these measures across the virtual ports to identify the virtual port through which maximum number of multicast packets were sent/received.
pack_OutMulticast Indicates the rate at which multicast packets were sent through this port during the last measurement period. Packets/sec
pack_InUnicast Indicates the rate at which unicast packets were received by this virtual port during the last measurement period. Packets/sec Compare the value of these measures across the virtual ports to identify the virtual port through which maximum number of unicast packets were sent/received.
pack_OutUnicast Indicates the rate at which unicast packets were sent through this port during the last measurement period. Packets/sec
pack_InDropped Indicates the rate at which packets were dropped by this port upon reception during the last measurement period. Packets/sec Ideally, the value of this measure should be zero. Compare the value of this measure across the virtual ports to identify the virtual port that is dropping too many packets upon reception.
pack_OutDropped Indicates the rate at which packets were dropped by this port upon transmission during the last measurement period. Packets/sec Ideally, the value of this measure should be zero. Compare the value of this measure across the virtual ports to identify the virtual port that is dropping too many packets upon transmission.
pack_InException Indicates the rate at which packets that were not expected for e.g., invalid ethertype packets were received by this port during the last measurement period. Packets/sec Exceptions is a catch-all bucket for packets that are not expected. For example, you get a packet with vlan tags outside the allowed range, such as packets with an invalid ethernet header. This is slightly different from drops, which can be caused by shaping or a system temporarily running out memory. You may not see many exception packets under normal circumstances. The only place VMware increments this measure is invalid ether type in the packet.
pack_OutException Indicates the rate at which packets that were not expected for e.g., invalid ethertype packets were sent through this port during the last measurement period. Packets/sec