Argent for VMware uses PowerCLI to retrieve various VMware performance metrics. In a typical setup, instead of communicating ESX/ESXi hosts, a single vCenter is the interface for the whole VMware environment.

PowerCLI is not a lightweight API set. Internally VMware uses web services as communication protocol. The overhead is obvious. For example, a typical logon authentication can take 20+ seconds to complete.

VMware also has limited each ESX/ESXi host can be directly linked to only one vCenter. It is unlikely to use multiple vCenters to distribute the load for retrieving information from the same ESX/ESXi host.

On the other hand, user is usually reluctant to allow Argent for VMware monitor ESX/ESXi hosts directly. The logic behind is simple, if vCenter crashes because of load, it can be reboot as it might be just a VM; if ESX/ESXi host crashes or is slowed because of load, the whole production environment on it can be gone.

As a result, we have to carefully plan the architecture and tune Argent for VMware.

In Argent AT 2.0A-1204-B and onwards, Argent introduces Turbo mode for Argent for VMware