VMware ESXTOP Commands for Storage Monitoring

ESXTOP Commands

Troubleshooting storage performance issues can be difficult. ESXTOP Command tool can help.

(Esxtop Commands)

Note: Alway check with your storage vendor for assistance before spending too much time trying to solve storage issues. The differences between NAS, NFS, SAN, iSCSI is enormous and requires expertise.

 

Command Strings and Switches

I thought I’d post some useful CLI ESXTOP commands to help with monitoring storage for when you start having performance problems resulting from oversubscribed storage.

1. Monitor overall storage performance per HBA:

esxtop

d

f

b,c,d,e,h,j

s,2

2. Monitor storage performance per LUN: *

esxtop

u

f

b,c,f,h

s,2

3. Monitor storage performance per VM: *

esxtop

v

f

b,d,e,h,j

s,2

* These options are only available in ESX 3.5 and greater.

The columns we are going to pay attention to are CMDS/s, DAVG/cmd, KAVG/cmd, and GAVG/cmd. Below is a brief description of each of these
values.

CMDS/s:

This is the number of IOPS or Input/Output Operations Per Second being sent to or coming from the device or VM being monitored.

DAVG/cmd:

This is the average response time in milliseconds per command being sent to the device.

KAVG/cmd:

This is the amount of time the command spends in the VMkernel.

GAVG/cmd:

This is the response time as it is perceived by the guest OS.

For more ESXTOP Commands related to ESXi 4 – 5 please read VMware KB: Using EXSTOP

About The Author

Joe Sanchez

Since 1998, I've been an IT Professional. In this time, I've experienced working as a Help Desk Supervisor, Systems Administrator, VMware Engineer and Manager, Hybrid Cloud & DevOps Engineer and Ops Manager. I'm a published Author of 2 books, Blogger, and IT Infra & Ops VP at Grand Canyon University. I've held certifications as a VCP, CCNA, MSCA, Security+, Network+, A+, SCUM Master, ITIL, and hold an Undergrad degree in Info Technology. I believe creating the best user experience is the top priority. Visit Joe on "LinkedIn". Feel free to leave him your comments below...

4 Comments

  1. chuck farah

    what do these do?
    b,c,d,e,h,j is there any documentation that shows or tells you what these mean…i could not find anything on vmwares web site…

    Reply
    • editor

      Thanks for the comment Chuck, here’s a couple links to documents on using ESXTOP.

      Also you can man esxtop from the CLI to get more info.

      Hope this helps.

      Reply
  2. harsha

    Hi,
    Want to know if there is a way to configure esxtop so that we can gather statistics on a particular device and not on all the devices when we use ‘u’ in interactive mode.

    Reply
  3. titomane

    Hi,

    nice job, a little criptic but after trying everything is evident you made me think not apply 😉

    sheers,

    Reply

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