ESXi: How to check on the health of your Datastore disks using Putty and ESXTOP commands.

In ESXi, you may need to check whether your hard drives are functioning properly or if it is time to replace them.

In this article, I will go over some shell commands you can use to check your hard drive's status.

Now, I am just learning about these commands myself, but I wanted to create this article.
#1: I would have them to fall back on if I needed them again.
#2: To share with the community.

Step 1: Enable Secure Shell

Log in to your [ESXi].
Right-click on either [Host] | [Manage] | [Monitor]
Choose Services
Then choose [Enable Secure Shell (SSH)]

Step 2: Download and Install Putty

Putty is possibly the best program to use for all Linux and even Windows Servers in DOS.
Download the latest version of Putty«
I download all my software to my D:\ drive.
This makes it easier to find and keep all downloads if you ever have to reinstall your OS.

Once installed.
Open [Putty]
In your taskbar for [Putty], Right-click and choose [Pin to taskbar]
(This will make it easier for the next step)

[PuTTy settings for a new Connection]

Host Name (or IP Address) 192.168.2.189

Port: 22
Saved Session: ESXi 189
Click Save
(The above will save the session so you can right-click on the Putty app in your taskbar and choose from the list of the last run sessions.)
Click [Open]

When the screen opens,
Username: root
password: YourPassWord

Step 3: Command for ESXi

List all the storage devices in ESXi.«
ESXTOP - real-time troubleshooting«
How to Identify Latency and Queuing«

List all the storage devices in ESXi

[ESXi - Get Storage Drive list]

CFFCS | CarrzSynEdit: | CMD (Windows Command Prompt) | L (Linux)

esxcli storage core device list

What we want is the name that starts with t10.ATA. It will look something like this.
t10.ATA_____ST9500620NS_____9XF335C4

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If you have multiple drives, you will find multiple values.

[ESXi - Check on the drive's health and condition.]

CFFCS | CarrzSynEdit: | CMD (Windows Command Prompt) | L (Linux)

esxcli storage core device smart get -d t10.ATA_____ST9500620NS_____9XF335C4

Output will look something like this.

Parameter	Value	Threshold	Worst
---------------------------	-----	---------	-----
Health Status	OK	N/A	N/A
Media Wearout Indicator	N/A	N/A	N/A
Write Error Count	N/A	N/A	N/A
Read Error Count	75	44	63
Power-on Hours	26	0	26
Power Cycle Count	100	20	100
Reallocated Sector Count	100	36	100
Raw Read Error Rate	75	44	63
Drive Temperature	39	0	51
Driver Rated Max Temperature	61	45	49
Write Sectors TOT Count	N/A	N/A	N/A
Read Sectors TOT Count	N/A	N/A	N/A
Initial Bad Block Count	N/A	N/A	N/A

ESXTOP - real-time troubleshooting

Other Resources.virten.net | ESXTOP Guide«yellow-bricks.com | ESXTOP«Broadcom.com | ESXi S.M.A.R.T. health monitoring for hard drives«

Type in the esxtop

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Click [Enter]
Press the [F] key
This opens a list of options.

Current Field order: ABcDEFghij
*	A	ID	=	Id
*	B	GID	=	Group Id
0	C	LWID	=	Leader World Id (World Group Id)
*	D	NAME	=	Name
*	E	NWLD	=	Num Members
*	F	%STATE TIMES	=	CPU State Times
0	G	EVENT COUNTS/s	=	CPU Event Counts
0	H	CPU ALLOC	=	CPU Allocations
0	I	SUMMARY STATS	=	CPU Summary Stats
0	J	POWER STATS	=	CPU Power Stats
Toggle fields with a-j, any other key to return:

The * is for the selected items.

Using the following chart, you can switch between the different available modes.
Simply type either letter while esxtop is running.

Modes	Switch views using
c	CPU
m	Memory
d	Disk Adapter
u	Disk Device
n	Network
v	VM Disk

How to Identify Latency and Queuing in ESXi 6.5

To find the queuing metrics you need, use one of the following views:

1. Disk Device View (LUN level):

Press [U] to switch to the Disk Device view.
Press [F] and ensure D (Queue Stats) is selected.
Look for the [QUED] column. This shows how many commands are waiting because the LUN's queue is full.

2. Disk Adapter View (HBA level):

Press [D] to switch to the Disk Adapter view.
Press [F] and select [D] (Queue Stats).
Look for [AQLEN] (Adapter Queue Length) and [QUED].

The Output
(The Device names ___ have been shorten, and properties have been broken by letter to save space)
PWP = PATH/WORLD/PARTITION

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DEVICE	P W P	D Q L E N	W Q L E N	A C T V	Q U E D	% U S D	L O A D	C M D S/s	R E A D S/s	W R I T ES/s	M B R E AD/s	M B W R TN/s	D A V G /cmd	K A V G /cmd	G A V G /cmd	Q A V G /cmd
t10.ATA _____ ST9500620NS ___	-	31	-	0	0	0	0.00	1.38	0.00	1.38	0.00	0.02	0.37	0.02	0.39	0.00
t10.ATA _____ ST9500620NS ___	-	31	-	0	0	0	0.00	0.79	0.00	0.79	0.00	0.00	0.24	0.01	0.26	0.00
t10. SanDisk00Cruzer _Blade00	-	1	-	0	0	0	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00