CB-Net

VMWare : Capturing Performance Statistics

The following process will allow you to capture Windows Performance counter compatible CSV files from any ESX server using the ‘esxtop’ utility which is an integral part of VMWare ESX.

First we must create a couple of script files. The first being ‘ftp.sh‘ I have created the scripts on a datastore which houses NO Virtual Servers. Be careful where you place this data as filling up a datastore with VM’s will stop those VM’s working. You will need to modify the text in RED to ensure the script works in your environment. The text in RED is simply the path where the script fiels are located, and the path where the csv files will be generated.

This script will generate the CSV file and ‘trim’ it down to the stats we require. By default esxtop will generate an insanely large csv file. Once ‘trimmed’ it will upload the csv file to an FTP server of your choice and finally gzip/archive the file for future reference.

# Every 24 Hours FTP todays stats
#!/bin/bash
#
echo $(date +%R)
# Perform streamlining of CSV file
#
dm1=$(date –date=’1 day ago’ +%Y-%m-%d)
cat /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/$HOSTNAME_$dm1.csv | cut -d “,” -f 1,`head -1 /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/$HOSTNAME_$dm1.csv | tr “,” “\12” | egrep -n “\\\\\Memory\\\\\Free MBytes|Physical Disk\(vmhba1\)\\\\\Reads/sec|Physical Disk\(vmhba1\)\\\\\Writes/sec|Physical Disk\(vmhba1\)\\\\\MBytes Written|Physical Disk\(vmhba1\)\\\\\MBytes Read|\\\\\Physical Disk\(vmhba2\)\\\\\Reads/sec|Physical Disk\(vmhba2\)\\\\\Writes/sec|Physical Disk\(vmhba2\)\\\\\MBytes Written|Physical Disk\(vmhba2\)\\\\\MBytes Read |Physical Disk\(vmhba2\)\\\\\Commands/sec|Physical Disk\(vmhba1\)\\\\\Commands/sec|Physical Cpu\(_Total\)” | cut -d “:” -f 1 | tr “\12” “,”` > /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/trim_$HOSTNAME_$dm1.csv

sed -i”.bak” “2d” /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/trim_$HOSTNAME_$dm1.csv
rm /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/trim_$HOSTNAME_$dm1.csv.bak -f
rm /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/$HOSTNAME_$dm1.csv -f
mv /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/trim_$HOSTNAME_$dm1.csv /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/$HOSTNAME_$dm1.csv

HOST=’ftp.domain.local’
USER=’username’
PASS=’password’

# Connect to FTP Server
ftp -inv $HOST << EOF
user $USER $PASS
lcd /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop
put $HOSTNAME_$dm1.csv
bye
EOF

# GZIP and archive stats
#
gzip /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/$HOSTNAME_$dm1.csv
mv /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/$HOSTNAME_$dm1.csv.gz /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/archive/

Secondly create the ‘capturestats.sh‘ script which will launch esxtop and capture the statistics you require. Again, modify the text in RED to suit you environment. This script will capture stats every 60 seconds 1439 times – there are 1440 minutes in a day, and we want the script to start again at midbight, so thisscript will run 00:00 to 23:59.

# capture.sh
#!/bin/bash
#
today=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
#
# There are 1440 minutes in a day, we want to capture 00:00 > 23:59 so we’ll specify 1439 captures at 60 second intervals.
#
esxtop >> /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/EUVMTST1_$today.csv -d 60 -n 1439 -c /root/.esxhoststats

Next, create the esxtop config file under /root/.esxhoststats. This will ensure that we capyure only what we need, CPU stats, Memory Useage and Disk I/O stats. You can modify your own config file to meet your own requirements.

abcdefgh
abcdefghijklmno
AbcdefghIjklm
abcdefghijk
abcdefghijk
ABcDEFGHIJKLm
5u

Finally, under root acount context (accessed via sudo su –) execute the ‘controb -e‘ command. Add the following lines to the file:

#!/bin/bash
00 00 * * * /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/capturestats.sh >/dev/null
00 01 * * * /vmfs/volumes/LOCAL_ATTACHED/esxtop/ftp.sh >/dev/null

 This will cause the capturestats.sh script to run at midnight every day and the ftp.sh script to run at 01:00 everyday.