vCenter Server 5.1 performance charts report dropped network packets.

 

Article Summary:

This article provides information on possible cause and how to troubleshoot when vCenter Server 5.1 performance charts report dropped network packets.

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Symptoms:

• The Network Performance Charts in vCenter Server 5.1 show dropped packets under the Receive Packets Dropped counter.

• The Network Performance Charts in vCenter Server 5.1 show dropped packets under the Transmit Packets Dropped counter.

• Issue can occure when the Virtual Machine or the Host is experiencing a high CPU load and cannot work-down the IP packets in each buffer.

Cause:

This issue occurs when packets filtered by the IO chain are incorrectly recorded as dropped packets. This is a reporting issue, the packets are not dropped, hence they cannot be seen using esxtop or other network monitoring tools.

Resolution:

This is a known issue affecting vCenter Server 5.1. It is a cosmetic issue and does not indicate an actual network problem.
This issue is resolved in the patch release for ESXi 5.1. For more information, see VMware ESXi 5.1, Patch Release ESXi510-201310001 (2053402).

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Reference: vCenter Server 5.1 performance charts report dropped network packets