Frequent CPU Exhaustion alarm on vCenter server

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Behavior of vCenter is the following:

1. vCenter Server Appliance using high CPU frequently near to 100%
   
   
   
2. No pending sessions on the system.
   
   
3. No performance deteriorated, vCenter usage is normal and panels open in timely fashion.
   
   
4. No errors in the logs indicating loop on the services.
   
   
5. Postgres process is the one using the high CPU:
   
   

Environment

vCenter Server Appliance 8.0.x

Cause

Statistics level of vCenter general settings got changed from it's default (Default is 1).

This will cause postgres to be more aggressive on storing the statistics of each VM and ESXi.

 

Resolution

Change the configuration back to defaults.

As per Configuring Statistics Settings, use of higher levels is only for troubleshooting and should not be used for long periods.