Performance charts are empty and displays the error: Request processing is restricted by administrator

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• When you select a cluster and view the performance charts, you see the error:
  
  Request processing is restricted by administrator.
  
  This message is displayed when you attempt to view performance charts for clusters, resource pools, or other objects. You may see this message for overview charts and for advanced performance charts.
   
• When you right-click a host in the vSphere Client and select Report Performance, you see the error:
  
  A specified parameter was not correct. querySpec.size
  Call "PerformanceManager.QueryStats" for object "PerfMgr" on vCenter Server" failed.

 

• On checking the vpxd logs, you may observe the following trace : 
  

  2025-05-14T22:48:28.045Z info vpxd[1086134] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxLro opID=501e2389] [VpxLRO] -- BEGIN lro-2071146528 -- PerfMgr -- vim.PerformanceManager.queryStats -- 5294869e-####-####-####-04ec94eaed34(52339fff-####-####-####-e4d994bd5335)
  2025-05-14T22:48:28.046Z error vpxd[1086134] [Originator@6876 sub=MoPerfManager opID=501e2389] The query size of 2702 metrics exceeded the vpxd.stats.maxQueryMetrics limit of 256 metrics. Dropping
  2025-05-14T22:48:28.046Z warning vpxd[1086134] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmomi opID=501e2389] VMOMI activation LRO failed; <<5294869e-####-####-####-04ec94eaed34, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 8085'>, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 52292'>>, PerfMgr, vim.PerformanceManager.queryStats, <vim.version.v7_0, official, 7.0.0.0>, {stm: {<io_obj p:0x00007f5ee023da40, h:417, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 8085'>, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 52274'>>, id: 705600123, state(in/out): 3/1}, session: <5294869e-####-####-####-04ec94eaed34, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 8085'>, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 52292'>>, req: {POST, /sdk}}>, N3Vim5Fault25RestrictedByAdministrator9ExceptionE(Fault cause: vim.fault.RestrictedByAdministrator...
  2025-05-14T22:48:28.049Z info vpxd[1086134] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxLro opID=501e2389] [VpxLRO] -- FINISH lro-2071146528
  2025-05-14T22:48:28.049Z error vpxd[1086134] [Originator@6876 sub=Default opID=501e2389] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR lro-2071146528 -- 5294869e-####-####-####-04ec94eaed34(52339fff-####-####-####-e4d994bd5335) -- PerfMgr -- vim.PerformanceManager.queryStats: :vim.fault.RestrictedByAdministrator
  --> Result:
  --> (vim.fault.RestrictedByAdministrator) {
  -->    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
  -->    faultMessage = <unset>,
  -->    details = "vpxd.stats.maxQueryMetrics"
  -->    msg = ""
  --> }

  
   

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 6.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.x

VMware vCenter Server 7.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

• In vSphere 5.5 Update 2d and later, a limit is set to the number of entities that are included in a database query. The limit protects the vCenter Server database from receiving large queries.
• This issue occurs if entities in the query exceed the default limit
  
  
  

Resolution

To change the limitation for performance charts you must perform two tasks:

• Edit the config.vpxd.stats.maxQueryMetrics key in the advanced settings of the vCenter Server Appliance.
• Edit the web.xml file.

Change the config.vpxd.stats.maxQueryMetrics Key

1. In a Web browser, log in to vSphere Web Client.
2. Navigate to a vCenter Server and click the Manage tab.
3. On the Settings tab click Advanced Settings.
4. On the Advanced vCenter Server Setting page, click Edit.
5. Navigate to the config.vpxd.stats.maxQueryMetrics key and change the value.
   
   Note: If this is the first time you edit the key, you cannot see it in the list of advanced vCenter Server settings. You must first add the config.vpxd.stats.maxQueryMetrics key. If you added the key incorrectly, you can delete it from /etc/vmware-vpx/vpxd.cfg
6. Enter the name of the key and its value, and then click Add.
   The default values is 256  for vCenter Server 6.5 and above

7. To disable the limit, set a value to -1

Edit the web.xml File for vCenter Server and vCenter Server Appliance

1. Navigate to the web.xml file:
   • Open /usr/lib/vmware-perfcharts/tc-instance/webapps/statsreport/WEB-INF 
2. Open the web.xml file using a text editor.
3. Find the maxQuerySize parameter and change the value in the <param-value></param-value> tag. To disable the limit, set a value 0:
   
   <context-param>
   <description>Specify the maximum query size (number of metrics)for a single report. Non-positive values are ignored.</description>
   <param-name>maxQuerySize</param-name>
   <param-value>64</param-value>
   </context-param>
    
4. Save and close the web.xml file.
5. Restart the vmware-perfcharts service responsible for the performance charts. For more information please check Stopping, Starting or Restarting VMware vCenter Server Appliance services

Selecting maxQuerySize Value

 

Caution: If you increase the value of the config.vpxd.stats.maxQueryMetrics setting, or if you disable its limit, you might send larger queries to the vCenter Server database. This might cause the following problems:

• Deterioration in the general responsiveness of the vCenter Server
• Increased response time to display some of the charts

When you see the Request processing is restricted by the administrator message, if you are in doubt about the value you should set the maxQuerySize parameter, you can start with a value that is above the largest number of virtual machines or hosts in the cluster.

In addition, you can open the vpxd log file and look for the message that displays the number of metrics that exceed the limit.
To see the exact value that exceeds the limit, search the the vpxd.log file for a message similar to the following:
The query size of 65 metrics exceeded the vpxd.stats.maxQueryMetrics limit of 64 metrics. Dropping.
To see data in the performance charts, set the maxQuerySize value to a number greater than 65.

 

Note:

• Cluster metrics are dependent on host or VM metrics.
• A single cluster metric value might depend on a single or multiple host or VM metrics.
• The maxQueryMetrics limit is exceeded when the metric query count exceeds the default value (256)