Vcap-Dca Objective 6.1 – Configure, Manage, And Analyze Vsphere Log Files

Front 1

Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations: vpxd.log

Back 1

Found at: C:\ProgramData\vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

The main vCenter Server logs, consisting of all vSphere Client and webservices connections, internal tasks and events, and communication with the vCenter Server Agent (vpxa) on managed ESX/ESXi hosts.

Front 2

Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations: vpxd-profiler.log, profiler.log, and scoreboard.log

Back 2

Found at: C:\ProgramData\vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

Profiled metrics for operations performed in vCenter Server. Used by the VPX Operational Dashboard (VOD) accessible at https://VSHostNameorIPAddress/vod/index.html

Front 3

Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations: vpxd-alert.log

Back 3

Found at: C:\ProgramData\vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

Non-fatal information logged about the vpxd process.

Front 4

Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations: cim-diag.log; vws.log

Back 4

Found at: C:\ProgramData\vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

Common Information Model monitoring information, including communication between vCenter Server and managed hosts' CIM interface.

Front 5

Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations: drmdump

Back 5

Found at: C:\ProgramData\vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs\drmdump

Actions proposed and taken by VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), grouped by the DRS-enabled cluster managed by vCenter Server.

Front 6

Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations: ls.log

Back 6

Found at: C:\ProgramData\vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

Health reports for the Licensing Sevices extension, connectivity logs to vCenter server.

Front 7

Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations: vimtool.log

Back 7

Found at: C:\ProgramData\vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

Dump of string used during the installation of vCenter Server with hashed information for DNS, username and output for ODBC creation.

Front 8

Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations: stats.log

Back 8

Found at: C:\ProgramData\vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

Provides information about the historical performance data collection from the ESXi hosts.

Front 9

Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations: sms.log

Back 9

Found at: C:\ProgramData\vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

Health reports for the Storage Monitoring Service extension, connectivity logs to vCenter Server, the vCenter Server database and the xDB for vCenter Inventory Service.

Front 10

Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations: eam.log

Back 10

Found at: C:\ProgramData\vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

Health reports for the ESX Agent Monitor extension, connectivity logs to vCenter Server.

Front 11

Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations: catalina.<date>.log; localhost.<date>.log

Back 11

Found at: C:\ProgramData\vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

Connectivity information and status of the VMware webmanagement services.

Front 12

Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations:
jointool.log

Back 12

Found at: C:\ProgramData\vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

Health status of the VMware VMCMSDS service and individual ADAM database objects, internal tasks and events, and replication logs between linked-mode vCenter Servers.

Front 13

Viewing vCenter Server logs

Back 13

Can be viewed from the vSphere Client connected to vCenter Server:

Home-> Administration -> System Logs

From the vSphere web client

Home-> Log Browser

Click Select Object now, choose an ESXi host of vCenter Server object and click OK.

Front 14

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: auth.log

Back 14

Found at: /var/log/auth.log

ESXi shell authentication success/failure

Front 15

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: dhclient.log

Back 15

Found at: /var/log/dhclient.log

DHCP client service log

Front 16

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: esxupdate.log

Back 16

Found at: /var/log/esxupdate.log

Update installation log.

Front 17

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: hostd.log

Back 17

Found at: /var/log/hostd.log

Host management event log; also for VM tasks and events.

Front 18

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: shell.log

Back 18

Found at: /var/log/shell.log

Logs things that happen in the ESXi shell.

Front 19

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: sysboot.log

Back 19

Found at: /var/log/sysboot.log

Early VMkernel startup and module loading.

Front 20

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: syslog.log

Back 20

Found at: /var/log/syslog.log

Scheduled tasks, DCUI use and watchdogs.

Front 21

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: usb.log

Back 21

Found at: /var/log/usb.log

USB arbitration events.

Front 22

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: vob.log

Back 22

Found at: /var/log/vob.log

VMkernel observation events

Front 23

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: vmkernel.log

Back 23

Found at: /var/log/vmkernel.log

Core VMkernel logs, storage and networking device driver events and virtual machine startup

Front 24

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: vmkwarning.log

Back 24

Found at: /var/log/vmkwarning.log

Summary of warning and alert log messages from the VMkernel logs

Front 25

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: vmksummary.log

Back 25

Found at: /var/log/vmksummary.log

Summary of ESXi startup and shutdown, hourly heartbeat with uptime, number of VMs running and service resource consumption.

Front 26

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: vpxa.log

Back 26

Found at: /var/log/vpxa.log

vCenter server vpxa agent logs, communication between vCenter and hostd.

Front 27

Identify ESXi log files names and locations: fdm.log

Back 27

Found at: /var/log/fdm.log

vSphere HA (High Availability) events generated by the FDM service.

Front 28

Viewing ESXi logs

Back 28

You can view logs by connecting via SSH to an ESXi host.

Log and configuration files can also be found by going to the following URL: https://IPorHostNameof ESXiHost/host

You can also access logs via the DCUI

Front 29

Generate vCenter Server and ESXi Log Bundles: GUI

Back 29

1. Click on the vCenter name.
2. Click File->Export
3. Click Export System Logs.
4. Select at which level you want to export logs.
5. Select Next.
6. Select which logs you want to export.
7. Click Next.
8. Click the Browse button to select a location to save the log bundle to.
8. Click Next.
9. Click Finish.

Front 30

Generate vCenter Server and ESXi Log Bundles: CLI

Back 30

To export logs you need to use the vm-support command. You can export information based on a list of groups or certain 'manifests' or you can export information on a particular virtual machine.

You can also set a log level with the -loglevel option, values are 0-50 with 0 being the most verbose.

Generate a generic log bundle by executing vm-support and it will generate a log bundle in a .gz format and by default place it in the /var/tmp directory.

Use the -w option to change the working directory of where the bundle will be saved.

Front 31

Generate vCenter Server and ESXi Log Bundles: Using Export log utility

Back 31

New in ESXi you can also invoke the export log utility via https:

https://username:password@ESXiHostnameOrIPAddress/cgi-bin/vm-support.cgi

Front 32

Use esxcli system syslog to configure centralized logging on ESXi hosts: initial steps

Back 32

Before you go to the effort to configure your hosts for syslog, take a look at the current configuration from the command line using the following command:

esxcli system syslog config get

You can also use the following command to list out the same details, but for each individual log (which will also tell you what all of the log files are):

esxcli system syslog config logger list

Front 33

Use esxcli system syslog to configure centralized logging on ESXi hosts: check ESXi firewall from GUI

Back 33

Ensure that the ESXi firewall has the syslog ports open:

1. Log into the vSphere client.
2. From the Inventory tree, click the ESXi host that you have configured, or are configuring remote syslog for.
3. Click the Configuration tab.
4. Under the Software pane, click the Security profile link.
5. In the right pane, to the right of Firewall, click the Properties link.
6. Find the syslog service located under the Ungrouped services.
7. If the checkbox next to syslog isn't checked, check it.
8. Click OK

Front 34

Use esxcli system syslog to configure centralized logging on ESXi hosts: change the default rotation size

Back 34

Command Line Interface Solutions and Examples Guide, P 134

esxcli system syslog config set --default-size=<size>

Front 35

Use esxcli system syslog to configure centralized logging on ESXi hosts: change the default rotation number

Back 35

Command Line Interface Solutions and Examples Guide, P 134


esxcli system syslog config set --default-rotate=<number>

Front 36

Use esxcli system syslog to configure centralized logging on ESXi hosts: set the host to send logs to a remote syslog server

Back 36

Command Line Interface Solutions and Examples Guide, P 134


esxcli system syslog config set --loghost <IP or hostname of syslog server>

Front 37

Use esxcli system syslog to configure centralized logging on ESXi hosts: load the changes into runtime

Back 37

Command Line Interface Solutions and Examples Guide, P 134


esxcli system syslog reload

Front 38

Use esxcli system syslog to configure centralized logging on ESXi hosts: verify changes

Back 38

Command Line Interface Solutions and Examples Guide, P 134


esxcli system syslog config get

Front 39

Test centralized logging

Back 39

Testing your centralized logging can be done via a command in the esxcli system syslog namespace that allows you to send a message to all your logs at the same time. You can use this to send a message, and then check the log on your remote syslog system and see if it shows up.


esxcli system syslog mark --message="Test message."

Front 40

Install and configure VMware syslog Collector

Back 40

1. Login to the server you plan on installing syslog collector.
2. Run the vCenter installer.
3. Under vCenter Support Tools, click VMware Syslog Collector.
4. Click the Install button.
5. You can accept all defaults, or change the installation directory and log rotation size and frequency.