• ESXi disconnects from vCenter
• ESXi stops responding
• ESXi generates a purple diagnostics screen

1. Run the minimalized ps command:
   
   ps -Tcjstv
   
   The output shows information such PID, command-line used, and state.
   
   
2. To generate output for certain processes and maintain a title row, run this command:
   
   
   ps -Tcjstv | egrep "WID|{proc-name}"
   
   
3. The esxcfg-info command can offer some detail on process memory and CPU and is contained in the vm-support dumps. Process information in esxcfg-info is contained in sections called Groups, but the groups can be cumbersome to sift through.
   
   Grep these groups for information on process memory and CPU with the command:
   
   esxcfg-info | egrep -A85 "Group Id" | egrep "Group Name|Group Id|Total CPU|Total Memory|Used Time|Parent Id|----Active\.\.\.\." | less
   
   
4. To check for file-system issues, run this command:
   
   stat –f {filesystem}
   
   Note: This checks inode use, from which a runaway process can sometimes be determined (even if you do not know exactly what files are involved).
   
   To check across all filesystems, run this command:
   
   stat -f `df | grep -v "Filesystem" | awk '{print $6}'` | egrep "File|Inodes"
   
   
5. To view network connection (socket) details, run this command:
   
   esxcli network connection list
   
   Note: For ESXi 5.x and later, run this command:
   
   esxcli network ip connection list
   

Note: At the time of publication, there is no way to tell how many open files a process holds (for example, lsof).