Performance data blank - 'No data available'

[admchh]

Hi,

We've discovered an issue displaying the performance data in vCenter. Real-time data displays fine, but at various points in the past month or so performance data for each host has stopped displaying. For example, data stopped displaying early December on host 4, but on host 3 data stopped displaying late November.

I've tried the following troubleshooting steps:

kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1020903

Note: I had to change the commands adding vmw. before the table name (ie vmw.vpx_hist_stat1)

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100438...

Ran the following scripts against the VC DB:

     stats_rollup1_proc_mssql.sql

     stats_rollup2_proc_mssql.sql

     stats_rollup3_proc_mssql.sql

     purge_stat1_proc_mssql.sql

     purge_stat2_proc_mssql.sql

     purge_stat3_proc_mssql.sql

No upgrades have been applied to vCenter and the fact that the performance data stops displaying for differing hosts at differing times is strange because no updates to ESXi have been applied which would be the only way a change or update had been applied at differing times, ie. if a change was applied to the vCenter server or SQL it should affect the performance data from the same date and time for all hosts.

vCenter 5.0.0 (clean install, not an upgrade about 11 months ago)

Appreciate if anyone can assist with troubleshooting.

Thanks

[RParker]

VMware is great at ESX, virtualization and Guest OS.

When it comes to backup, performance tools, and operations of those servers and VM's, that's where VMware comes up short.

As you have seen performance tools work.. for a while, then they stop.  The reason for this is because (and I have been complaining for YEARS) that don't involve this community in their testing...

Don't even get consideration, like open beta announcements or even just throw us a link BEFORE it's ready for public release, we could ferret out these flaws so the software is much better managed.  WE (technical end users) have a vested interest in ENSURING VMware software works PERFECT.  That part seems to be lost on VMware management.

I have talked DIRECTLY to engineers, software support, QA and SALES within VMware, and they give me the same song and dance "That's sounds like a great idea, we should do that!  Thanks for your input, give me your number and I will someone contact you, regarding your valuable input!".

Yeah, blah whatever.. I hear NOTHING.

Yet they KEEP having problems with software, and it REALLY seems VMware is only interested in using the same tired, untrained QA staff they have (which is obvious because they don't get better at catching mistakes and glaring flaws).

So what you should do is seek a 3rd party.  vFoglight is a great tool.  veeam is good as well.  Those are 2 of the most thorough you can get, historical data can be kept anywhere as long as you like, and since it's not part of VMware vCenter if you have to rebuild vCenter or install (for whatever reason) you don't lose that data.  Performance data is invaluable.. but apparently it's not treated with proper respect as evidenced by the fact that YOU have a problem and WE also have the same problem, and it's just a headache to fix... and by fix I mean bandaid, because eventually it will happen again...

I get tired of fixing things over and over.. it should JUST work, why is that so hard?  I don't know.  But it's clear VMware isn't fond of doing anything sensible about it.

[a_nut_in]

This sounds suspecially like the "not collecting stats" issue.

What happens if the Virtual Center services are restarted? Do the stats show up after a restart? Does this happen to random hosts and also what version of VC/ESX are you running?

http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsp_vc50_u1_rel_notes.html

vCenter Server contains gaps in performance data for some ESX/ESXi hosts
During periods of intermittent network connectivity between ESX/ESXi hosts and vCenter Server, if vCenter Server attempts to collect performance statistics from a host that is not accessible, the statistics collection task remains in the pending state and no further statistics are collected for that host. This causes vCenter Server to show gaps in performance data for the inaccessible ESX/ESXi host
The vpxd.log files might contain entries similar to the following:
[VpxdMoHost::CollectRemote] Attempt to collect stats on
[VpxdMoHost::CollectRemote] Not collecting stats this time on host because collection pending Had to drop performance data coming from host because it has error (The specified network name is no longer available).
This issue is resolved in this release.

[RParker]

afunnynut wrote:

This sounds suspecially like the "not collecting stats" issue.

What happens if the Virtual Center services are restarted? Do the stats show up after a restart? Does this happen to random hosts and also what version of VC/ESX are you running?

http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsp_vc50_u1_rel_notes.html

It doesn't seem to matter, this has been a problem since 3.01 from the time I started working with ESX.  Patches, updates, and version upgrades gets better with each iteration but the problem isn't completely fixed.

We have to do something, restart vCenter, run a script in SQL, change permissions whatever the case.. it's different each time.  My problem is it isn't consistent.

Using a 3rd party that interfaces with any version of ESX seems to be the best solution.  Plus you don't have to change products each time VMware feels like they want to change the GUI, the GUI in vFoglight has remained pretty similar between versions, only functionality has improved and performance as well.