Understanding the VSC dashboard


Understanding the VSC dashboard
The Virtual Storage Console (VSC) dashboard provides an overview of the storage systems and host systems that are configured in your vCenter Server environment. The dashboard enables you to monitor the performance of all of your top datastores and virtual machines that are configured on a single page.
You can use the data that is provided in the VSC dashboard to analyze the datastore usage and to take corrective action to prevent the virtual machines from running into space-related issues. The VSC dashboard includes an Overview section, portlets, and command buttons.
Overview
The Overview section of the VSC dashboard provides information about the datastore capacity, NFS-only space savings, and IOPS of the datastores that are managed by VSC. You can gather the following information using the Overview section:
The datastore capacity is displayed in the form of a pie chart. The pie chart aggregates the used capacity and free space across all of the datastores that are managed by VSC.
The data is represented in the form of a ratio as well as a bar graph for ease of readability.
IOPS is calculated as the sum of the current read IOPS and write IOPS across all of the datastores.
The VSC dashboard provides an overall view of the capacity and space savings of the datastores in your vCenter Server at a given time. Except for storage efficiency, all of the information that is available in the dashboard is provided by the vCenter Server APIs. Storage efficiency is calculated from the data that is provided by ONTAP.
Portlets
The VSC dashboard includes portlets for storage systems, host systems, datastores, and virtual machines.
Storage Systems
The Storage Systems portlet provides the following information about your vCenter Server:
Number of storage virtual machines (SVMs) configured
You can click on the alerts to view the details about the storage system that has issues. Each storage system that is listed in the dialog box of the alert is a link that navigates to the Storage Systems list view. The storage systems can have issues such as incorrect credentials or not being configured in the vCenter Server. You can verify the issue with the storage system and take corrective actions to fix the issue.
Troubleshooting information is detailed in the Troubleshooting VSC, VASA Provider, and SRA virtual appliance chapter of the Virtual Storage Console, VASA Provider, and Storage Replication Adapter for VMware vSphere Deployment and Setup Guide.
Host Systems
The Host Systems portlet provides the following information about the hosts that are registered to your vCenter Server:
Any issues with the host settings are displayed as alerts in the Host Systems portlet. The dialog box of the alert lists the host systems that have issues. Each host system in the alert dialog box is a link that enables you to navigate to the Summary tab of the host. You can use the Edit settings button to apply recommended settings.
Editing ESXi host settings for VSC, VASA Provider, and SRA
Datastores
The Datastores portlet displays the total number of datastores and the top five datastores in your vCenter Server based on a selected category. You can categorize the top five datastores in the Datastores portlet according to one of the following parameters:
The datastores having the highest or lowest free space are displayed based on your selection. The percentage of used space is displayed.
The IOPS information for datastores is retrieved by vCenter Server from the host systems. The top five datastores with the highest or lowest IOPS are displayed, based on your selection.
The maximum latency across all of the datastores that are managed by VSC is displayed. The top five datastores with the highest latency are listed.
You can position your cursor over the progress bar to check the actual values for a datastore. Each datastore name is a link that navigates to the Performance tab for that datastore in your vCenter Server.
Virtual Machines
The Virtual Machines portlet displays the total number of virtual machines and the top five virtual machines that are using the datastores that are provisioned by VSC. You can categorize the Virtual Machines portlet according to one of the following parameters:
The highest latency value across all of the datastores that are associated with a virtual machine is displayed.
The time since the virtual machine process was available on an ESXi host is displayed.
The highest committed capacity for a particular virtual machine across all of the datastores is displayed.
The committed capacity category includes both powered on and powered off virtual machines. For latency and uptime categories, only the virtual machines that are powered on are considered.
Each virtual machine name is a link that navigates to the Performance tab for the selected virtual machine.
Command buttons
The VSC dashboard includes the following command buttons:
The Edit settings button enables you to modify settings for multiple hosts at a single instance.
The dashboard data is refreshed periodically at an interval of five minutes. You must click the icon to gather the latest information about the vCenter Server datastores and virtual machines. The dashboard lists datastore and virtual machine information only after the storage system is discovered by vCenter Server.
The About button provides details about the product title and the version number of VSC that is deployed for a selected vCenter Server and the copyright information. If you enabled linked mode, then all of the VSC instances must be of the same version number.
The Help button enables you to access the documentation for VSC.
Next Topics:  
Host configuration and performance monitoring using the VSC dashboard
Monitoring datastores by using the VSC dashboard of the virtual appliance for VSC, VASA Provider, and SRA
Monitoring virtual machines using the VSC dashboard