How to Check VMware ESXi Disk Health Status | SMART Monitoring

Why You Need Check Disk Health in VMware ESXi

Disk health monitoring is vital in VMware ESXi. It's about keeping a close watch on the physical and logical health of your storage devices. In virtualized environments, like VMware ESXi, multiple virtual machines (VMs) often share the same storage, making it crucial to monitor storage health. Disk health monitoring involves:

• Predicting Disk Failures: Tools analyze storage health indicators, like SMART data for hard drives, to predict potential failures.
• Optimizing Performance: It identifies storage-related performance bottlenecks, improving VM performance.
• Managing Capacity: Keeps tabs on storage capacity and usage to ensure VM and data needs are met.
• Ensuring Data Integrity: Detects and prevents data corruption and errors on storage devices.
• Proactive Maintenance: Enables early intervention, like replacing failing drives, reducing downtime and data loss risks.

VMware ESXi provides SMART technology for effective disk health monitoring. It's a critical component of ensuring the reliability, performance, and data integrity of virtualized environments.

How to Check Disk Health in VMware ESXi Host

With more SSD drives added into the VMware host, it’s important to monitor the health status of these drives.

VMware ESXi SMART feature is a technology integrated into modern hard drives and solid-state drives (SSDs) to monitor their health and provide insights into potential issues. Analyzing SMART data is a crucial step in assessing disk health in VMware ESXi. Here's how to do it:

1. Connect to your ESXi host using SSH or access the ESXi Shell.

2. Run the following command to list available storage devices:

esxcli storage core device list

3. The expected output is a list with all SCSI devices seen by the ESXi host.

4. To gather more detailed information about a specific device, use the following command, replacing “device_name” with the name of the device you want to inspect:

✉ Note: External FC/iSCSI LUNs or virtual disks from a RAID controller might not report a S.M.A.R.T. status.

You can archive the same results for all disks in once by running a script called smartinfo.sh in the following folder:

✉ Note: If you check ESXi disk failures from command line, you could use VMKFSTOOLS to fix errors.

VMware ESXi's S.M.A.R.T health monitoring provides invaluable insights into the condition of your storage devices, allowing you to proactively address issues and maintain a stable virtualized environment. Regularly reviewing and interpreting S.M.A.R.T data is a proactive measure to ensure the longevity and reliability of your storage infrastructure.

Regular VMware ESXi backups are also essential for data protection, allowing you to recover it in case of data loss or corruption. They are a crucial component of a comprehensive data management and disaster recovery strategy.

Protect Your VMware ESXi to Using AOMEI Cyber Backup

AOMEI Cyber Backup - VMware backup software offers seamless data protection, versatile backup options, and unwavering reliability. Secure your VMware ESXi data today with AOMEI Cyber Backup – your shield against data loss nightmares. Your data deserves nothing less than AOMEI's trusted protection.

✻ Easy Installation: Download AOMEI Cyber Backup on your device with ESXi access, and connect seamlessly to your ESXi host.
✻ Select VMs: Choose the VMs you want to back up. Store your backups locally or on a NAS for added security.
✻ Disaster Recovery: Plan for emergencies and test your recovery procedures. AOMEI simplifies VM recovery.
✻ Customize and Schedule: Tailor backup settings and schedules to your preferences. Opt for full, incremental, or differential backups.

AOMEI Cyber Backup supports VMware ESXi 6.0 and later versions. Next, I will show you how to back up VMware virtual machines step by step. You can click the following button to download the perpetual free edition.

Protect your critical VMware data effortlessly with these simple steps:

1. Bind Devices: Access to AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, navigate to Source Device > VMware > + Add VMware Device to Add vCenter or Standalone ESXi host. And then click… > Bind Device.

2. Create Backup Task: Navigate to Backup Task > + Create New Task, and select VMware ESXi Backup as the Backup Type.

3. Set Task Name, Device, Target, Schedule, and Cleanup as needed.

▶ Task Name: you can change the task name or use the default name with an ordinal.

▶ Device: batch select large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server for centralized backup.

▶ Target: select to back up to a local path, or to a network path.

▶ Schedule (optional): offers full / incremental / differential backup methods and flexible time type for backup.

4. Run Backup: Click Start Backup and select Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.

✐ While the Free Edition covers most of VM backup needs, you can also upgrade to Premium Edition to enjoy:
✦ Batch VM backup: Batch backup large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server or on standalone ESXi hosts.
✦ Backup cleanup: Configure a retention policy to auto delete old backup files and save storage space.
✦ Restore to new location: Restore VM to another datastore/host directly from the backup, saves the trouble of re-configuring the new VM.

Conclusion

Safeguarding the health of your VMware ESXi disks is a fundamental aspect of maintaining a stable and efficient virtual environment. This article introduced how to use VMware ESXi smart health monitoring technology to address issues.

With the right tools and strategies in place, you can rest easy knowing that your virtualized environment is resilient. So, take action today, prioritize disk health, and fortify your VMware ESXi environment for a reliable and smooth virtualization experience.