VCP5 – Size the vCenter Server database

I looked through much of VMware’s documentation and couldnt find any easy calculation on how to size your database (For 4.1 I did find http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/vsp_4x_db_calculator.xls, but didn’t find anything similar for 5.0). Because of this, I can only assume they are more concerned with you knowing how to change the DB sizing than they are with how big the DB actually is.

There are 2 settings: Statistics Intervals and Database Retention, both of which are managed in the same method.

1. Open Virtual Center and connect to a vCenter Server
2. On the menu bar, select Administration | vCenter Server Settings
3. In the left pane, select Statistics
1. Here you can change the Statistics Levels and retention for performance data
2. This also allows you to enter the number of hosts and VMs data will be collected from and provides you with an estimated database size
4. In the left pane, select Database Retention Policy
1. Configure the database to discard historical tasks and events as appropriate

More specifics about these settings can be found on pages 35 and 41 of http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-host-management-guide.pdf