Comparing health monitoring between vSphere 4.0 and ESX 3.5

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article discusses the differences between the vSphere Client Hardware Status tab and the VI Client Hardware tab in the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box.

Environment

VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x

Resolution

VI Client Hardware tab

• Can be used with ESX/ESXi 3.5 and VirtualCenter
• Primarily focused on reporting health information and has limited asset information.
• Not configured to detect VirtualCenter alarms , so hardware failures are only detected when you navigate to a virtual machine Properties dialog box directly.

To view the VI Client Hardware tab:

1. Click the host > Configuration tab > Properties.
2. In the Properties dialog box click the Hardware tab.

To view the configuration status of a hardware item, click the item. The right side of the dialog box displays the device status and configuration information based on sensor health data.

For more information on ESX Server 3.0 and VirtualCenter 2.0, see the Basic System Administration Guide.

vSphere Client Hardware Status tab

• Can be used with vCenter Server.
• Wheninto an ESX/ESXi server directly, the ESX/ESXi 3.5 interface is displayed.
• Additional detailed asset information, such as CPU details, cache details, and so forth.
• Configurable alarms for health events can be used to trigger actions such as email and SNMP traps.
• Ability to display and clear the System Event Log (SEL) for hardware
• Modified refresh interval. In the VI Client, and the vSphere Client logged into an ESX/ESXi host, the system defined automatic refresh interval is 90-120 seconds. In vSphere Client logged into vCenter Server, the system defined automatic refresh interval is 10 minutes. This refresh rate has the following benefits:
• • Reduced load on the system
  • Increased the scalability to hundreds or thousands of physical hosts
• User initiated manual refresh update at any time on a per host basis. This is in addition to the system driven automatic refresh.

To view the vSphere Client Hardware Status tab:

1. Click Hosts and Clusters view in the Inventory window.
2. Click the host in the Inventory and click the Hardware Status tab.

For more information on vCenter Server 4.0, ESX 4.0, and ESXi4.0, see the vSphere Basic System Administration Guide.