Monitoring Windows Hyper-V

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You can monitor Windows Hyper-V infrastructure with the Windows Hyper-V sensor, providing insights into the health and performance of the virtual machines and the underlying host infrastructure. The Windows Hyper-V sensor is automatically deployed, configured, and installed after you install the Instana agent. You can then view the metrics that are related to Windows Hyper-V in the Instana UI.

The Windows Hyper-V monitoring is an optional feature in Instana and is disabled by default. To enable this optional feature, complete one of the following procedures:

Supported versions and support policy

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Instana tested the Hyper-V sensor on a single host Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Datacenter.

Configuring Windows Hyper-V sensor

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By default, the sensor is enabled only after you enable Windows Hyper-V monitoring. To enable the sensor, add the following configuration to the agent configuration file <agent_install_dir>/etc/instana/configuration.yaml. You can disable it by setting the enabled property to false.

com.instana.plugin.windowshypervisor:
  enabled: true  # To disable the sensor set to false
  availabilityZone: "Default Zone" # Zone Name
  poll_rate: 1 # default poll rate in seconds is 10

After you enable monitoring, the Windows Hyper-V sensor is enabled and collects metrics for the host and virtual machines, if the host supports virtualization.

By default, the agent collects Windows Hyper-V host and virtual machine metrics every 10 seconds. To change the interval, update poll_rate property in the agent configuration file <agent_install_dir>/etc/instana/configuration.yaml:

In some cases, the metric collection might be disabled on the virtual machines. To enable metrics collection, run the following PowerShell script as an administrator. Save the script with a .ps1 file extension and run it in a PowerShell terminal:

# Enable resource metering on all VMs
$vms = Get-VM
foreach ($vm in $vms) {
    if (-not $vm.ResourceMeteringEnabled) {
        Enable-VMResourceMetering -VMName $vm.Name
    }
}

Viewing metrics

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To view the metrics, complete the following steps:

  1. From the navigation menu in the Instana UI, click Platforms > Windows Hypervisor.
  2. On the Windows Hyper-V dashboard, click a Windows Hyper-V host.

You can view the following metrics and data.

Host data

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The Windows Hyper-V dashboard displays the following details:

  • Host name
  • Number of virtual machines
  • CPU usage
  • Memory usage

The Summary page for each host displays the following details:

  • Operating System running on the host
  • IP address
  • Number of cores (CPU Count)
  • Total storage space available
  • MAC address of the host
  • Uptime
  • CPU usage in percentage
  • Memory usage in percentage
  • A chart with the Logical and Virtual CPU usages
  • A chart with the Total and Free RAM available
  • A table listing attached storage media, including drive name, file system, free space available, and Size of the disk
  • A table with the processor statistics for each processor.

The Virtual machines tab shows a summary of virtual machines that are created on the host. Select a virtual machine to view its detailed dashboard.

The Summary page for each virtual machine dashboard displays the following details:

  • MAC address of the virtual machine
  • Initial RAM assigned (MiB)
  • Status
  • State
  • The network switch used
  • Total disk storage space allocated
  • The virtual disk path
  • Uptime
  • A chart showing the CPU and RAM usage
  • A chart with the Inbound and Outbound network traffic details
  • A table with the disk information, such as Controller type, Controller number, Path, and Size.
Note: The Controller number is the index of the controller (IDE, SCSI, or SATA).

Performance metrics

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The Windows Hyper-V sensor collects the following performance metrics from the Windows Hyper-V host:

Data point Description Granularity
CPU usage Mean utilization of physical CPUs 10 seconds
Memory usage Mean utilization of RAM 10 seconds
Free storage space The cumulative free storage space available on the host 10 seconds
Total RAM Total amount of RAM that is available 10 seconds
Free RAM Amount of RAM that is available for use 10 seconds
Logical CPU usage The average value usage of all individual processor threads seen by the Hyper-V host OS 10 seconds
Virtual CPU usage The average CPU resource that the VM is consuming relative to its vCPUs, not the host’s total capacity 10 seconds

The Windows Hyper-V sensor collects the following performance metrics for each Windows Hyper-V virtual machine:

Data point Description Granularity
CPU usage Mean utilization of physical CPUs 10 seconds
Memory usage Mean utilization of RAM 10 seconds
Free storage space The free storage space available on the host 10 seconds
Network inbound bytes The amount of network traffic received through the VM's virtual network adapters 10 seconds
Network outbound bytes The amount of network traffic sent through the VM's virtual network adapters 10 seconds