vCenter Cluster Summary Page Flickers Intermittently with Active Alarms in vCenter Server 8.0
Article ID: 422457
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
The Cluster Summary page in the vSphere Client intermittently flickers or repeatedly refreshes when the cluster has one or more active alarms (Warning or Error state).
Symptoms:
-
When viewing the Cluster Summary page, the screen keeps flickering approximately every 4-5 seconds.
-
This flickering is observed across different browsers and for different users.
-
The issue is immediately present as soon as any alarm (warning or error) is active on the cluster object.
-
The flickering stops if all active alarms are Acknowledged or Reset to Green.
-
The issue is not observed on any other cluster tabs (Hosts, VMs, Monitor, Configure).
Environment
VMware vCenter Server 8.x
Cause
The flickering is related to the vSphere Client's mechanism for monitoring and refreshing changes within the cluster's objects, specifically active alarms. In this particular version, when one or more alarms are present on the cluster, the continuous monitoring process takes a prolonged time to refresh, causing the Summary page to intermittently update and flicker.
Resolution
The issue is resolved in newer versions of vCenter Server where the refresh behavior has been optimized.
-
This issue is explicitly resolved in vCenter Server 8.0 Update 3h.
Additional Information
Workaround:
If upgrading is not immediately possible, use the following methods to temporarily stop the flickering:
Address or Acknowledge Alarms: Resolve the conditions triggering the alarms, or right-click the alarms and select Acknowledge. Acknowledging the alarms changes their status and stops the continuous refresh cycles.
Disable the Alarm (Temporary): As a temporary measure, you can disable the specific alarm definition causing the frequent updates. Note that this action should be performed with caution as it suspends monitoring for that specific event.
Feedback
