Performance Chart : ESX 3.5 and vCenter 2.5 have different options

When it comes to monitor performance on ESX servers, VMware has had the good idea to integrate charts that can help you check CPU, Memory, System (uptime) and Disk health.

But using VI client through ESX 3.5 or through vCenter 2.5 to check them, you would have different levels of information.

Let’s have a look.

In the VI Client, to reach the performance charts, you should click on “Inventory” then browse on the left side of the window to the ESX server name or IP.

When the server is highlighted, on the right side of the window, you will find “Performance” tab. From there, you can see the real-time statistics by default.

You can notice the “Change chart options” link: click on it to see the performance chart configuration options.

Here you have a screenshot of that options on a VI Client connected to an ESX 3.5 server:

As you can see, you can only view PastDay stats or Real-time stats.

Now let’s see the screenshot on vCenter 2.5 server:

You have much more possibilities: Past Week, Past Month, Past Year and even Customized stats !

So as you can see, the level of information you can get for your servers is different, whether they are clustered or not.