Performance problems can arise in any computing environment. Complex application behaviors, changing demands, and shared infrastructure can lead to problems arising in previously stable environments. Troubleshooting performance problems requires an understanding of the interactions between the software and hardware components of a computing environment. Moving to a virtualized computing environment adds new software layers and new types of interactions that must be considered when troubleshooting performance problems. Proper performance troubleshooting requires that you start with a broad view of the computing environment and systematically narrow the scope of the investigation as you eliminate possible sources of problems.
Troubleshooting efforts that start with a narrowly conceived idea of the source of a problem often get bogged down in detailed analysis of one component, when the actual source of the problem is elsewhere in the infrastructure. In order to quickly isolate the source of performance problems, you need to adhere to a logical troubleshooting methodology that avoids preconceptions about the source of the problems.
Often,though, many environments are susceptible to the same performance issues, so this document is focused on addressing the most common performance issues VMware sees in the field and how these issues can be diagnosed using the VMware vCenter Operations Manager suite.
vCenter Operations Manager is a complex tool and can be leveraged many different ways. This guide will focus on the Virtual Machine object primarily as a starting point for learning to leverage the vCenter Operations Manager tool.
