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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.

Counter StatsType Unit Level Per
Device
Level		 RollupType Label Entity Instance/
Aggregate		 ESX
Versions
capacity.contention ratepercent24average CPU Capacity Contention ResourcePoolaggregate3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
Percent of time the virtual machine is unable to run because it is contending for access to the physical CPU(s).
capacity.demand ratemegaHertz24average CPU Capacity Demand ResourcePoolaggregate3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
The amount of CPU resources a virtual machine would use if there were no CPU contention or CPU limit.
capacity.entitlement absolutemegaHertz14average CPU Capacity Entitlement ResourcePoolaggregate3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
CPU resources devoted by the ESX scheduler to the virtual machines and resource pools.
capacity.provisioned absolutemegaHertz34average CPU Capacity Provisioned
Capacity in megaHertz of the physical CPU cores.
capacity.usage ratemegaHertz34average CPU Capacity Usage ResourcePoolaggregate3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
CPU usage in megaHertz during the interval.
coreUtilization ratepercent2 (4)4average
(minimum)
(maximum)
(none)		 Core Utilization HostSysteminstance
corecount.contention ratepercent13average CPU Core Count Contention ResourcePoolaggregate3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
Time the virtual machine is ready to run, but is unable to due to co-scheduling constraints.
corecount.provisioned absolutenumber14average CPU Core Count Provisioned ResourcePoolaggregate3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
The number of virtual processors or physical cores provisioned to the entity.
corecount.usage absolutenumber24average CPU Core Count Usage
The number of virtual processors running on the host.
costop deltamillisecond23summation Co-stop VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate5.0.0
cpuentitlement absolutemegaHertz13latest Worst case allocation ResourcePoolaggregate3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
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) on 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 ratemegaHertz23average Demand VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate5.0.0
entitlement absolutemegaHertz23latest Entitlement VirtualMachineaggregate5.0.0
extra deltamillisecond44summation Extra VirtualMachineinstance3.5.0
guaranteed absolutemillisecond44latest Guaranteed VirtualMachineinstance3.5.0
Not supported for ESX 4.x systems, except through vCenter Server. CPU time that is reserved for the entity. For virtual machines, this measures CPU time that is reserved, per virtual CPU (VCPU).

This counter has been deprecated and should not be used to monitor performance.
idle deltamillisecond23summation Idle VirtualMachine
HostSystem		instance3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
Total time that the CPU spent in an idle state (meaning that a virtual machine is not runnable).
latency absolutepercent23average Latency VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate5.0.0
maxlimited deltamillisecond23summation Max limited VirtualMachineinstance5.0.0
Time the virtual machine is ready to run, but does not run because it has reached its maximum CPU limit setting.
overlap deltamillisecond33summation Overlap VirtualMachineinstance5.0.0
Time the virtual machine was interrupted to perform system services on behalf of that virtual machine or other virtual machines.
ready deltamillisecond13summation Ready VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
Percentage of time that the virtual machine was ready, but could not get scheduled to run on the physical CPU. CPU ready time is dependent on the number of virtual machines on the host and their CPU loads.
reservedCapacity absolutemegaHertz23average Reserved capacity HostSystemaggregate3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
Total CPU capacity reserved by the virtual machines.
run deltamillisecond23summation Run VirtualMachineinstance5.0.0
swapwait deltamillisecond33summation Swap wait VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
Time the virtual machine is waiting for swap page-ins. CPU Swap Wait is included in CPU Wait.
system deltamillisecond33summation System VirtualMachineinstance3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
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 HostSystemaggregate4.1.0
5.0.0
totalmhz ratemegaHertz13average Total
Total amount of CPU resources of all hosts in the cluster. The 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		instance
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		aggregate
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		instance3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
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
wait deltamillisecond33summation Wait VirtualMachine
HostSystem		aggregate3.5.0
4.0.0
4.1.0
5.0.0
CPU time spent in wait state. The wait total includes time spent the CPU Idle, CPU Swap Wait, and CPU I/O Wait states.

 

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