Historical performance graph intervals show incorrectly

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When selecting historical data from a vCenter performance chart (Past day, Past week, Past month, or Past year) the incorrect interval duration is shown for one or more intervals. For example, the Past day interval shows 30 minute datapoint intervals, rather than 5 minute datapoint intervals.
• If historical performance data is exported, the incorrect interval duration is exported.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.7.x

Cause

This issue occurs due to the interval time that the vSphere Client uses when the data is being displayed. This table shows how the intervals are configured by default:

 

Interval	Configuration
Past day	5 minute intervals that are kept for 1 day
Past week	30 minute intervals that are kept for 1 week
Past month	2 hour intervals that are kept for 1 month
Past year	1 day intervals that are kept for 1 year

 

If the interval time is outside the existing dataset that is available in the database for that interval, vCenter Server determines and displays the largest sampling period providing a less granular dataset in the graph.

 

For example, even though the past day interval is selected, 5 minute intervals may not be displayed if the selected interval times are outside the available dataset. In this case, the graph displays the next larger interval, which is 30 minutes.

Resolution

To work around this issue specify a custom chart interval that uses the appropriate time that exists for that interval. For example, instead of specifying the Past day, select Custom and then select From:

 

 

When selected, modify the time to slightly less than the expected interval. For example, if the last day is being specified from 2/1/2021 @ 13:27 PM to 2/2/2021 @ 13:27PM, change the time by an hour from 2/1/2021 @ 13:27 PM to 2/3/2011 @ 12:27PM. By specifying the date, you are not relying on the client time to determine what the last interval is. You can then query data exists for the specific interval.

If you are specifying a greater time interval that does not match any of the datasets, then you can increase the custom interval to include the next larger interval so your desired date can be included in the chart. For example, if the last month is being specified from 1/1/2021 @ 13:27 to 2/1/2021 @ 13:27, change the time by a one day from 12/31/2020 @ 13:27 to 2/2/2021 @ 13:27.

Additional Information