A virtual-machine environment can include a parent component (e.g., a host cluster, a host or a set of virtual machines) that is a parent to a set of two or more child components. For example, a host cluster can be a parent to multiple hosts; a host can be a parent to multiple virtual machines; and a set of virtual machines can be a parent to multiple virtual machines. Performance metrics for the child components can be monitored. A child-component performance state can be determined for each child component in the set of two or more child components using a corresponding monitored performance metric and a child-component state criterion (e.g., that maps performance-metric values to states). A parent performance state can be determined for the parent component using the child-component performance state for each child component in the set and a parent-component state criterion.