How to identify network contention?

[jamesl73]

I'm looking for a metric or something that will tell me if I have too many VMs attached to a vSwitch or how many physical NICs I should have teamed to vSwitch. I know my systems are not using the full gigabit capacity of the NIC, but in the same sense my VMs are not using all the CPU, but even though the over all CPU may be 50% or less my % ready times go up when there is contention with too many VMs. Is there a similar thing to look at for network?

[khughes]

If you are thinking there is networking contension, I would start by looking at ESXtop. ESXtop looks at all the major components, including networking, so after you switch to the networking view, you should be able to view the stats for that host and figure out if you have some sort of contension.

• Kyle

[jose_maria_gonz]

Hi Jamesl73

As khughes suggested esxtop would be the tool to look at. Once you are in esxtop don't forget to press n (ESX nic) to switch display to ESX network nics.

rgds,

J.

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