📊 [Discussion] What’s your daily VM health check routine?

Dan Zeng

Managing VMs isn’t just about fixing problems — it’s about preventing them.
What’s in your daily or weekly health check list?
Do you focus more on performance metrics, backups, security patches, or all of the above?

Share your routine, tools, and any tips you’ve learned along the way!

Everett Kensington

Thanks for starting this great discussion!
My daily VM health check routine mainly includes:

Performance Monitoring:
Check CPU, memory, and disk I/O usage via VMware vCenter and Grafana dashboards.
Look for any abnormal spikes or sustained high usage.
Backup Verification:
Confirm that scheduled backups completed successfully using Veeam reports.
Occasionally perform quick restore tests on non-critical VMs to verify backup integrity.
Security Updates:
Review any pending OS and hypervisor patches.
Prioritize critical security patches and plan maintenance windows accordingly.
Snapshot Management:
Scan for snapshots older than 7 days and clean up to prevent performance degradation.
Alerts & Logs:
Check system and event logs for errors or warnings.
Respond to any open alerts from monitoring tools like Nagios or Zabbix.

Tools I use:

VMware vCenter for centralized management
Veeam Backup & Replication for backups
Grafana + Prometheus for monitoring dashboards
PowerShell scripts for automated snapshot cleanup

Would love to hear what others focus on or if you have handy automation tips!

Dan Zeng

Everett Kensington it's perfect!

Julian Moreland

I focus on all of the above — prevention is key.
My weekly VM health check routine usually includes:

Performance metrics: CPU, RAM, and disk I/O trends (vCenter / Grafana dashboards).

Backups: Verify last job status, run a quick test restore with Vinchin Backup & Recovery.

Security patches: Apply hypervisor and guest OS updates, check for outdated packages.

Storage health: Monitor datastore usage, check for latency or early warning signs.

Tip: Automating reports with scripts saves a ton of time — I run a PowerShell job every Monday that emails me a summary of all key metrics and backup statuses.