Now to check the network statistics of the ESXi Server or VM, you should follow the proceeding steps:
- Open up vSphere Web Client.
- Log in to your vCenter Server.
- Navigate to Hosts and Clusters on the home screen.
- Choose the ESXi Server where you want to monitor the utilization and performance of the network.
- Go to the Monitor tab, then the Performance tab.
- Click on the Advanced tab, then select Network from the drop-down menu.
- Click on Chart Options.
- Now select the metrics and click on OK to continue.
- The counters that you need to select are:
- Usage
- Data receive rate
- Data transmit rate
- Packets transmitted
- Packets received
- Transmit packets dropped
- Receive packets dropped
The following is an example screenshot where you can see the utilization of the ESXi network:
It's worth noting that in practice, dropped packets should be exactly zero. Also, in practice, network usage for typical VMs is a simple load on the host compared to storage I/O, CPU, and memory demand. The network is the least likely physical bottleneck, as long as it's configured reasonably.