Missing or Stopped Virtual Machine Guest Metrics in vRealize Operations Manager 6.x or later

Products

• VMware Aria Suite

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Guest Virtual Machine metrics are missing or not collecting.
• Other Virtual Machine metrics are collecting.
• The parent VMware vSphere adapter and Virtual Machine object are in a Data Receiving Status.
• Memory|Usage % always shows much higher than the guest OS utilization on some or all applicable objects in vRealize Operations Manager 6.7.

Cause

When a host is added to a vCenter, vCenter requests Virtual Machine guest metrics.
If no Virtual Machines have ever run on the host, there are no metrics to provide, so Virtual Machine Guest metrics are dropped indefinitely.

Resolution

There is currently no resolution for vCenter Server 6.0 or 6.7.

This issue is resolved in vCenter Server 6.5 U3 available at VMware Downloads.

Workaround:
Complete all of the following.  If one set of steps resolves the issue, you may skip the other remaining steps.

Windows OS Guests

For Virtual Machines with a Windows OS, ensure they are running guest VMware Tools version 10.3.2 (10338) or later.
Note: The vCenter VM summary page will show the Guest Tools version if you click More info.


VMware vSphere Adapter Credentials

1. Ensure the vRealize Operations Manager VMware vSphere adapter credentials have the Performance > Modify intervals privilege enabled in the target vCenter(s).  See Minimum Collection User Permissions in vRealize Operations Manager 6.x and later for more information.

Note: The adapter credentials used can be reviewed or modified in vRealize Operations Manager by clicking Configure on the VMware vSphere solutions under Administration > Solutions.

2. Log into the vRealize Operations Manager UI as an administrator.
3. Navigate to Administration > Solutions.
4. Select VMware vSphere.
5. Under Configured Adapter Instances, select an adapter instance and click Stop Collecting.
6. Once the adapter instance has stopped, click Start Collecting.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 on all other desired adapter instances.

Disconnect and reconnect the parent hosts from vCenter

1. Log into the vCenter Server UI as an Administrator.
2. Ensure each host to be reconnected has at least one Virtual Machine deployed with minimum VMware Guest Tools versions of 9.10.5 for Linux or 10.3.2 for Windows.
3. Under Navigator, select the desired host and right-click it.
4. Select Connection > Disconnect, and click Yes at the prompt.
5. Once the host has been disconnected, right-click the same host under Navigator.
6. Select Connection > Connect, and click Yes at the prompt.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 for all other needed hosts.

Virtual machine guest metrics will start collecting in vRealize Operations Manager within a few collection cycles.
Note: Disconnecting a managed host does not remove it from vCenter Server; it temporarily suspends all monitoring activities that vCenter Server performs. The managed host and its associated virtual machines remain in the vCenter Server inventory.

Additional Information

Note: This article pertains to Virtual Machine Guest  metrics, not Guest File System metrics.