Which metric would indicate potential performance issues in ESXi due to resource contention?

The metric that indicates potential performance issues in ESXi due to resource contention is CPU ready time. This metric measures the amount of time that a virtual machine (VM) is ready to execute but is unable to do so because it is waiting for CPU resources. When the CPU ready time is high, it suggests that there is not enough CPU capacity available for the VMs, which can lead to performance degradation and slow response times for applications running on those VMs.

In environments with multiple VMs, if the total demand for CPU resources exceeds the available resources, it results in contention. This is specifically illustrated by increased CPU ready time, as VMs must wait for their turn to access the CPU. Monitoring and addressing CPU ready time can help identify and alleviate performance bottlenecks which may be attributed to resource contention in the ESXi host.

Other metrics may provide insights into overall system health or performance but do not directly indicate resource contention. For instance, the number of datastores gives visibility into storage resources and management rather than CPU resource availability. Aborted commands may highlight issues with specific operations or configurations but do not inherently point to resource contention. Swapping rate refers to memory management and can reflect different performance challenges, yet it doesn't directly signify CPU contention