How can I view FlexFabric uplink utilization/saturation information?

[MattGG]

I am capacity planning for existing vSphere blades in a FlexFabric c7000.   I can view network throughput data via vSphere perf tools.   I can size the uplink requirements base on the vSphere peak net usage.  Just trying to figure out if there is a way to view the metrics from the FlexFabrics which will allow me to understand if/when uplink saturation occurs and what the throughput is.

Thanks,

-Matt

[Psychonaut]

You need to setup Throughput Statistics (firmware needs to be at 3.70 as a minimum).  From VCM select Ethernet and Advanced Settings.  Enable it and set your Sample rate (5 minutes by default). 

To view the charts click on Tools - Throughput Statistics...  

You can also pull that data out in text form from the CLI, if you prefer it that way.

The caveat is that this will not gather FC stats, just networking.

[MattGG]

Is this something that can be enabled and left on,  or should it only be enabled for short periods of time?

Thanks,

-Matt

[Psychonaut]

Leave it on - the performance hit is neglible.  That way if you have a problem and are using the 5min version you can pull a chart up right away with the stats from the past 25 hours.  Of course before that happens I'd go in there a couple of times and do a screen scrape or two to have a baseline for how things are under "normal" circumstances.