VMware vCenter

Collects metrics from VMware vCenter by polling the vCenter API over HTTPS, and receives syslog forwarded from vCenter over UDP/TCP. Metrics cover vCenter and ESXi objects (clusters, datacenters, hosts, datastores, resource pools, and virtual machines), while logs are parsed into structured records. Either or both signals can be enabled on a single source.

Supported Telemetry Types

Platform	Metrics	Logs	Traces
Linux	✓	✓
Windows	✓	✓
macOS	✓	✓

Prerequisites

This source supports two independent collection paths. Enable whichever telemetry types you need.

Metrics (vCenter API)

• A reachable vCenter endpoint. The collector must be able to open an HTTPS connection to the vCenter hostname/IP on the configured port (443 by default).
• A read-only vCenter account. A "Read Only" role assigned in vSphere to the vCenter server, the cluster, and all subsequent resources being monitored is required so the receiver can read their metrics. For creating the account and assigning the role, see VMware's documentation on using vCenter Server roles to assign privileges.
• TLS material, if you enable strict certificate verification. To validate the vCenter server certificate you need its certificate authority (CA) file on the collector host. For mutual TLS, you also need a client certificate and private key. See the TLS parameters below.

Logs (syslog)

• vCenter must be configured to forward syslog to the collector's IP and the configured listen port (5140 by default). For enabling syslog forwarding on vCenter, see VMware's documentation on forwarding vCenter Server log files to a remote syslog server.
• The listen port must be open in any host and cloud firewalls between vCenter and the collector.
• Binding to a port below 1024 requires the collector to run as root (Linux) or Administrator (Windows).
• If TLS is enabled for incoming syslog, the collector needs an x509 PEM certificate and private key.

Configuration

General

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Choose Telemetry Type	Telemetry Selector	No	Logs, Metrics	Which signals this source collects. Choose any combination of Logs and Metrics.

Logs

These parameters apply when Logs is selected.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Listening IP Address	String	No	0.0.0.0	The IP address to bind to and receive syslog.
Listening Port	Integer	Yes	5140	Port to receive syslog on. The collector must run as root (Linux) or Administrator (Windows) when binding to a port below 1024.

Metrics

These parameters apply when Metrics is selected.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Hostname	String	Yes	(empty)	The hostname or IP address of the vCenter system.
Port	Integer	No	443	The TCP port of the vCenter system.
Username	String	Yes	(empty)	The username to use when connecting to vCenter.
Password	String	Yes	(empty)	The password to use when connecting to vCenter. Stored as a sensitive value.

Advanced

Logs (advanced)

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Enable TLS	Boolean	No	false	Whether to use TLS when receiving incoming syslog. Applies when Logs is selected.
Parse To	Enum: body, attributes	No	body	Parse structured log parts to either the body or attributes. Applies when Logs is selected.
TLS Certificate File	String	No	(empty)	Path to the x509 PEM certificate. Applies when Logs is selected and Enable TLS is on.
TLS Private Key File	String	No	(empty)	Path to the x509 PEM private key. Applies when Logs is selected and Enable TLS is on.
Parse	Boolean	No	true	Parses the log fields into structured data.

Metrics (advanced)

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Collection Interval	Integer	No	2	How often, in minutes, to scrape for metrics. Applies when Metrics is selected.
Metrics	Metrics	No	(empty)	Toggle individual vCenter/ESXi metrics on and off. Leave empty to collect the receiver's defaults; see the per-category Metric Reference below for each metric and its default.

Metrics TLS (advanced)

These parameters control TLS for the metrics connection to the vCenter API. They apply when Metrics is selected. By default the source connects without verifying the vCenter server certificate (insecure_skip_verify). Enable strict verification to validate the certificate against a CA, and optionally require mutual TLS.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Strict TLS Certificate Verification	Boolean	No	false	Enable to require TLS certificate verification of the vCenter server. When off, the server certificate is not verified.
TLS Certificate Authority File	String	No	(empty)	Certificate authority used to validate the vCenter TLS certificate. Applies when Strict TLS Certificate Verification is on.
Mutual TLS Authentication	Boolean	No	false	Enable to require TLS mutual authentication. Applies when Strict TLS Certificate Verification is on.
Mutual TLS Client Certificate File	String	Yes	(empty)	A TLS certificate used for client authentication. Required when Strict TLS Certificate Verification and Mutual TLS Authentication are on.
Mutual TLS Client Private Key File	String	Yes	(empty)	A TLS private key used for client authentication. Required when Strict TLS Certificate Verification and Mutual TLS Authentication are on.

Metric Reference

The Metrics parameter toggles these metrics individually. Defaults reflect the upstream vCenter Receiver (v0.153.0).

Cluster Metrics

Metric	Unit	Default	Description
vcenter.cluster.cpu.effective	MHz	Enabled	The effective CPU available to the cluster.1
vcenter.cluster.cpu.limit	MHz	Enabled	The amount of CPU available to the cluster.
vcenter.cluster.host.count	{hosts}	Enabled	The number of hosts in the cluster.
vcenter.cluster.memory.effective	By	Enabled	The effective available memory of the cluster.
vcenter.cluster.memory.limit	By	Enabled	The available memory of the cluster.
vcenter.cluster.vm.count	{virtual_machines}	Enabled	The number of virtual machines in the cluster.
vcenter.cluster.vm_template.count	{virtual_machine_templates}	Enabled	The number of virtual machine templates in the cluster.
vcenter.cluster.vsan.congestions	{congestions/s}	Enabled	The congestions of IOs generated by all vSAN clients in the cluster.
vcenter.cluster.vsan.latency.avg	us	Enabled	The overall cluster latency while accessing vSAN storage.
vcenter.cluster.vsan.operations	{operations/s}	Enabled	The vSAN IOPs of a cluster.
vcenter.cluster.vsan.throughput	By/s	Enabled	The vSAN throughput of a cluster.

1. This value excludes CPU from hosts in maintenance mode or are unresponsive.

Datacenter Metrics

Metric	Unit	Default	Description
vcenter.datacenter.cluster.count	{clusters}	Enabled	The number of clusters in the datacenter.
vcenter.datacenter.cpu.limit	MHz	Enabled	The total amount of CPU available to the datacenter.
vcenter.datacenter.datastore.count	{datastores}	Enabled	The number of datastores in the datacenter.
vcenter.datacenter.disk.space	By	Enabled	The amount of available and used disk space in the datacenter.
vcenter.datacenter.host.count	{hosts}	Enabled	The number of hosts in the datacenter.
vcenter.datacenter.memory.limit	By	Enabled	The total amount of memory available to the datacenter.
vcenter.datacenter.vm.count	{virtual_machines}	Enabled	The number of VM's in the datacenter.

Host Metrics

Metric	Unit	Default	Description
vcenter.host.cpu.capacity	MHz	Enabled	Total CPU capacity of the host system.
vcenter.host.cpu.reserved	MHz	Enabled	The CPU of the host reserved for use by virtual machines.
vcenter.host.cpu.usage	MHz	Enabled	The amount of CPU used by the host.
vcenter.host.cpu.utilization	%	Enabled	The CPU utilization of the host system.
vcenter.host.disk.latency.avg	ms	Enabled	The latency of operations to the host system's disk.
vcenter.host.disk.latency.max	ms	Enabled	Highest latency value across all disks used by the host.
vcenter.host.disk.throughput	{KiBy/s}	Enabled	Average number of kilobytes read from or written to the disk each second.
vcenter.host.memory.capacity	MiBy	Disabled	Total memory capacity of the host system.
vcenter.host.memory.usage	MiBy	Enabled	The amount of memory the host system is using.
vcenter.host.memory.utilization	%	Enabled	The percentage of the host system's memory capacity that is being utilized.
vcenter.host.network.packet.drop.rate	{packets/s}	Enabled	The rate of packets dropped across each physical NIC (network interface controller) instance on the host.
vcenter.host.network.packet.error.rate	{errors/s}	Enabled	The rate of packet errors transmitted or received on the host network.
vcenter.host.network.packet.rate	{packets/s}	Enabled	The rate of packets transmitted or received across each physical NIC (network interface controller) instance on the host.
vcenter.host.network.throughput	{KiBy/s}	Enabled	The amount of data that was transmitted or received over the network by the host.
vcenter.host.network.usage	{KiBy/s}	Enabled	The sum of the data transmitted and received for all the NIC instances of the host.
vcenter.host.vsan.cache.hit_rate	%	Enabled	The host's read IOs which could be satisfied by the local client cache.
vcenter.host.vsan.congestions	{congestions/s}	Enabled	The congestions of IOs generated by all vSAN clients in the host.
vcenter.host.vsan.latency.avg	us	Enabled	The host latency while accessing vSAN storage.
vcenter.host.vsan.operations	{operations/s}	Enabled	The vSAN IOPs of a host.
vcenter.host.vsan.throughput	By/s	Enabled	The vSAN throughput of a host.

Datastore Metrics

Metric	Unit	Default	Description
vcenter.datastore.disk.usage	By	Enabled	The amount of space in the datastore.
vcenter.datastore.disk.utilization	%	Enabled	The utilization of the datastore.

Resource Metrics

Metric	Unit	Default	Description
vcenter.resource_pool.cpu.shares	{shares}	Enabled	The amount of shares of CPU in the resource pool.
vcenter.resource_pool.cpu.usage	MHz	Enabled	The usage of the CPU used by the resource pool.
vcenter.resource_pool.memory.ballooned	MiBy	Enabled	The amount of memory in a resource pool that is ballooned due to virtualization.
vcenter.resource_pool.memory.granted	MiBy	Enabled	The amount of memory that is granted to VMs in the resource pool from shared and non-shared host memory.
vcenter.resource_pool.memory.shares	{shares}	Enabled	The amount of shares of memory in the resource pool.
vcenter.resource_pool.memory.swapped	MiBy	Enabled	The amount of memory that is granted to VMs in the resource pool from the host's swap space.
vcenter.resource_pool.memory.usage	MiBy	Enabled	The usage of the memory by the resource pool.

VM CPU Metrics

Metric	Unit	Default	Description
vcenter.vm.cpu.readiness	%	Enabled	Percentage of time that the virtual machine was ready, but could not get scheduled to run on the physical CPU.
vcenter.vm.cpu.time	%	Disabled	CPU time spent in idle, ready or wait state.
vcenter.vm.cpu.usage	MHz	Enabled	The amount of CPU used by the VM.
vcenter.vm.cpu.utilization	%	Enabled	The CPU utilization of the VM.

VM Memory Metrics

Metric	Unit	Default	Description
vcenter.vm.memory.ballooned	MiBy	Enabled	The amount of memory that is ballooned due to virtualization.
vcenter.vm.memory.granted	MiBy	Disabled	The amount of memory that is granted to a VM.
vcenter.vm.memory.swapped	MiBy	Enabled	The portion of memory that is granted to this VM from the host's swap space.
vcenter.vm.memory.swapped_ssd	KiBy	Enabled	The amount of memory swapped to fast disk device such as SSD.
vcenter.vm.memory.usage	MiBy	Enabled	The amount of memory that is used by the virtual machine.
vcenter.vm.memory.utilization	%	Enabled	The memory utilization of the VM.

VM Disk Metrics

Metric	Unit	Default	Description
vcenter.vm.disk.latency.avg	ms	Enabled	The latency of operations to the virtual machine's disk.
vcenter.vm.disk.latency.max	ms	Enabled	The highest reported total latency (device and kernel times) over an interval of 20 seconds.
vcenter.vm.disk.throughput	{KiBy/s}	Enabled	Average number of kilobytes read from or written to the virtual disk each second.
vcenter.vm.disk.usage	By	Enabled	The amount of storage space used by the virtual machine.
vcenter.vm.disk.utilization	%	Enabled	The utilization of storage on the virtual machine.

VM Network Metrics

Metric	Unit	Default	Description
vcenter.vm.network.broadcast.packet.rate	{packets/s}	Disabled	The rate of broadcast packets transmitted or received by each vNIC (virtual network interface controller) on the virtual machine.
vcenter.vm.network.multicast.packet.rate	{packets/s}	Disabled	The rate of multicast packets transmitted or received by each vNIC (virtual network interface controller) on the virtual machine.
vcenter.vm.network.packet.drop.rate	{packets/s}	Enabled	The rate of transmitted or received packets dropped by each vNIC (virtual network interface controller) on the virtual machine.
vcenter.vm.network.packet.rate	{packets/s}	Enabled	The rate of packets transmitted or received by each vNIC (virtual network interface controller) on the virtual machine.
vcenter.vm.network.throughput	By/s	Enabled	The amount of data that was transmitted or received over the network of the virtual machine.
vcenter.vm.network.usage	{KiBy/s}	Enabled	The network utilization combined transmit and receive rates during an interval.

VM vSAN Metrics

Metric	Unit	Default	Description
vcenter.vm.vsan.latency.avg	us	Enabled	The virtual machine latency while accessing vSAN storage.
vcenter.vm.vsan.operations	{operations/s}	Enabled	The vSAN IOPs of a virtual machine.
vcenter.vm.vsan.throughput	By/s	Enabled	The vSAN throughput of a virtual machine.

Examples

Collect metrics over a verified TLS connection

Poll the vCenter API for metrics and validate the server certificate against a CA file. Logs are not collected in this example.

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Source
metadata:
  name: vmware-vcenter
spec:
  type: vmware_vcenter
  parameters:
    - name: telemetry_types
      value:
        - Metrics
    - name: hostname
      value: vcsa.hostname.localnet
    - name: port
      value: 443
    - name: username
      value: [e-mail]
    - name: password
      value: REPLACE_ME
    - name: collection_interval
      value: 2
    - name: metrics_strict_tls_verify
      value: true
    - name: metrics_ca_file
      value: /opt/observiq-otel-collector/vcenter-ca.pem

Receive syslog over UDP/TCP

Listen for syslog forwarded from vCenter on the default port and parse it into structured logs.

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Source
metadata:
  name: vmware-vcenter-logs
spec:
  type: vmware_vcenter
  parameters:
    - name: telemetry_types
      value:
        - Logs
    - name: listen_ip
      value: 0.0.0.0
    - name: listen_port
      value: 5140
    - name: parse
      value: true
    - name: parse_to
      value: body

Configuration Tips

• Strict TLS Certificate Verification is off by default, so the metrics connection does not verify the vCenter server certificate out of the box. For production, enable it and supply a CA file so the connection is authenticated.
• The collection interval is configured in minutes. The default of 2 minutes is a reasonable starting point; shorter intervals increase load on vCenter and the collector.
• When binding the syslog listener to a privileged port (below 1024), run the collector as root (Linux) or Administrator (Windows), or keep the default 5140 and forward to it.
• Enable only the metric categories you need with the Metrics toggle to reduce volume; leave it empty to collect the receiver's defaults.

Troubleshooting

No metrics are collected

Symptoms: the vCenter metrics source produces no data.

Solutions:

1. Confirm the collector can reach the vCenter hostname/IP on the configured port (443 by default) and that no firewall blocks it.
2. Verify the username and password are correct and the account has a read-only role assigned to the vCenter server, cluster, and monitored resources.
3. If Strict TLS Certificate Verification is enabled, confirm the CA file is correct and matches the vCenter server certificate.

TLS handshake or certificate errors on metrics

Symptoms: connection failures or certificate-verification errors in the collector logs.

Solutions:

1. If the vCenter certificate is self-signed or not yet trusted, either supply the correct CA file or temporarily disable Strict TLS Certificate Verification to confirm connectivity.
2. For mutual TLS, confirm the client certificate and private key files exist on the collector host and are readable.

No syslog logs arriving

Symptoms: the syslog listener is running but no log records appear.

Solutions:

1. Confirm vCenter is configured to forward syslog to the collector's IP and the configured listen port.
2. Verify the listen port is open in host and cloud firewalls.
3. If binding to a port below 1024, confirm the collector runs as root (Linux) or Administrator (Windows).

Standalone Source

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Source
metadata:
  name: vmware-vcenter
spec:
  type: vmware_vcenter
  parameters:
    - name: telemetry_types
      value:
        - Logs
        - Metrics
    - name: hostname
      value: vcsa.hostname.localnet
    - name: port
      value: 443
    - name: username
      value: [e-mail]
    - name: password
      value: REPLACE_ME
    - name: collection_interval
      value: 2
    - name: metrics_strict_tls_verify
      value: true
    - name: metrics_ca_file
      value: /opt/observiq-otel-collector/vcenter-ca.pem
    - name: listen_ip
      value: 0.0.0.0
    - name: listen_port
      value: 5140
    - name: parse
      value: true
    - name: parse_to
      value: body

Related Resources

• VMware vCenter receiver (OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib)
• Using vCenter Server roles to assign privileges (VMware documentation)
• Forward vCenter Server log files to a remote syslog server (VMware documentation)