Back to PerformanceManager

CPU Counters

Performance counters are modeled using the PerfCounterInfo data object type. Each instance of a PerfCounterInfo data object contains metadata about a specific metric available from the system. The cpu group of performance counters supports metrics for CPU utilization per host, per virtual machine, per resource pool, or per compute resource, as appropriate.

Note: PerformanceManager returns fixed point integer numbers, so 2067 means 20.67% for percent units.

Counter StatsType Unit Level Per
Device
Level		 RollupType Label Entity Instance/
Aggregate		 ESX
Versions
capacity.contention ratepercent44average CPU Capacity Contention ResourcePoolaggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Percent of time the virtual machine is unable to run because it is contending for access to the physical CPU(s).
capacity.demand absolutemegaHertz44average CPU Capacity Demand ResourcePoolaggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
The amount of CPU resources a virtual machine would use if there were no CPU contention or CPU limit.
capacity.entitlement absolutemegaHertz44average CPU Capacity Entitlement ResourcePoolaggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
CPU resources devoted by the ESXi scheduler to the virtual machines and resource pools.
capacity.provisioned absolutemegaHertz44average CPU Capacity Provisioned
Capacity in MHz of the physical CPU cores.
capacity.usage ratemegaHertz44average CPU Capacity Usage ResourcePoolaggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
CPU usage as a percent during the interval.
coreUtilization ratepercent2 (4)4average
(minimum)
(maximum)
(none)		 Core Utilization HostSysteminstance
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).
corecount.contention ratepercent44average CPU Core Count Contention ResourcePoolaggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Time the virtual machine vCPU is ready to run, but is unable to run due to co-scheduling constraints.
corecount.provisioned absolutenumber44average CPU Core Count Provisioned ResourcePoolaggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
The number of virtual processors provisioned to the entity.
corecount.usage absolutenumber44average CPU Core Count Usage
The number of virtual processors running on the host.
costop deltamillisecond23summation Co-stop VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Time the virtual machine is ready to run, but is unable to run due to co-scheduling constraints
cpuentitlement absolutemegaHertz23latest Worst case allocation
Amount of CPU resources allocated to the virtual machine or resource pool, based on the total cluster capacity and the resource configuration (reservations, shares, and limits) of the resource hierarchy. cpuentitlement is computed based on an ideal scenario in which all virtual machines are completely busy and the load is perfectly balanced across all hosts.

This counter is for internal use only and is not useful for performance monitoring.
demand absolutemegaHertz23average Demand VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
The amount of CPU resources a virtual machine would use if there were no CPU contention or CPU limit
demandEntitlementRatio absolutepercent44latest Demand-to-entitlement ratio VirtualMachineaggregate5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
CPU resource entitlement to CPU demand ratio (in percents)
entitlement absolutemegaHertz23latest Entitlement VirtualMachineaggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
CPU resources devoted by the ESXi scheduler.
idle deltamillisecond23summation Idle VirtualMachine
HostSystem		instance5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Total time that the CPU spent in an idle state
latency ratepercent23average Latency VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Percent of time the virtual machine is unable to run because it is contending for access to the physical CPU(s)
maxlimited deltamillisecond23summation Max limited VirtualMachineinstance5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Time the virtual machine is ready to run, but is not running because it has reached its maximum CPU limit setting.
overlap deltamillisecond33summation Overlap VirtualMachineinstance5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Time the virtual machine was interrupted to perform system services on behalf of itself or other virtual machines.
readiness ratepercent44average Readiness VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate6.0
6.5
6.7
Percentage of time that the virtual machine was ready, but could not get scheduled to run on the physical CPU.
ready deltamillisecond13summation Ready VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Time that the virtual machine was ready, but could not get scheduled to run on the physical CPU during last measurement interval. CPU ready time is dependent on the number of virtual machines on the host and their CPU loads.
reservedCapacity absolutemegaHertz23average Reserved capacity HostSystemaggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Total CPU capacity reserved by virtual machines
run deltamillisecond23summation Run VirtualMachineinstance5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Time the virtual machine is scheduled to run
swapwait deltamillisecond33summation Swap wait VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
CPU time spent waiting for swap-in.
system deltamillisecond33summation System VirtualMachineinstance5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Amount of time spent on system processes on each virtual CPU in the virtual machine. This is the host view of the CPU usage, not the guest operating system view.
totalCapacity absolutemegaHertz23average Total capacity HostSystemaggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Total CPU capacity reserved by and available for virtual machines
totalmhz ratemegaHertz13average Total
Total amount of CPU resources of all hosts in the clusterThe maximum value is equal to the frequency of the processors multiplied by the number of cores.

totalmhz = CPU frequency x number of cores

For example, a cluster has two hosts, each of which has four CPUs that are 3GHz each, and one virtual machine that has two virtual CPUs.

VM totalmhz = 2 vCPUs x 3000MHz = 6000MHz
Host totalmhz = 4 CPUs x 3000MHz = 12000MHz
Cluster totalmhz = 2 x 4 x 3000MHz = 24000MHz
usage ratepercent1 (4)4average
(minimum)
(maximum)
(none)		 Usage VirtualMachine
HostSystem		instance5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
CPU usage as a percentage during the interval.
  • VM - Amount of actively used virtual CPU, as a percentage of total available CPU. This is the host's view of the CPU usage, not the guest operating system view. It is the average CPU utilization over all available virtual CPUs in the virtual machine. For example, if a virtual machine with one virtual CPU is running on a host that has four physical CPUs and the CPU usage is 100%, the virtual machine is using one physical CPU completely.

    virtual CPU usage = usagemhz / (# of virtual CPUs x core frequency)

  • Host - Actively used CPU of the host, as a percentage of the total available CPU. Active CPU is approximately equal to the ratio of the used CPU to the available CPU.

    available CPU = # of physical CPUs x clock rate

    100% represents all CPUs on the host. For example, if a four-CPU host is running a virtual machine with two CPUs, and the usage is 50%, the host is using two CPUs completely.

  • Cluster - Sum of actively used CPU of all virtual machines in the cluster, as a percentage of the total available CPU.

    CPU Usage = CPU usagemhz / effectivecpu

usagemhz ratemegaHertz1 (4)4average
(minimum)
(maximum)
(none)		 Usage in MHz VirtualMachine
HostSystem
ResourcePool		aggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
CPU usage, as measured in megahertz, during the interval.
  • VM - Amount of actively used virtual CPU. This is the host's view of the CPU usage, not the guest operating system view.
  • Host - Sum of the actively used CPU of all powered on virtual machines on a host. The maximum possible value is the frequency of the processors multiplied by the number of processors. For example, if you have a host with four 2GHz CPUs running a virtual machine that is using 4000MHz, the host is using two CPUs completely.

    4000 / (4 x 2000) = 0.50

used deltamillisecond33summation Used VirtualMachine
HostSystem		instance5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Time accounted to the virtual machine. If a system service runs on behalf of this virtual machine, the time spent by that service (represented by cpu.system) should be charged to this virtual machine. If not, the time spent (represented by cpu.overlap) should not be charged against this virtual machine.
utilization ratepercent2 (4)4average
(minimum)
(maximum)
(none)		 Utilization HostSysteminstance
CPU utilization as a percentage during the interval (CPU usage and CPU utilization might be different due to power management technologies or hyper-threading)
wait deltamillisecond33summation Wait VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate5.0
5.1
5.5
6.0
6.5
6.7
Total CPU time spent in wait state.The wait total includes time spent the CPU Idle, CPU Swap Wait, and CPU I/O Wait states.

 

Back to Top of page
Back to PerformanceManager