Scanning an ESXi 5.x host fails after redirecting VMware Update Manager logs to a syslog server

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• After redirecting the VMware Update Manager logs to the VMware vmsyslogd server, scanning an ESXi 5.0 host fails.
  
  
• You see the error:
  
  VMware vSphere Update Manager had an unknown error
  
  
• The VMware Update Manager logs contain entries similar to:
  
  [2012-02-27 16:07:48:406 'scanHost20' 3348 ERROR] [hostUpdateBase, 695] Platform Configuration Error: /usr/sbin/esxupdate returned no results, exit status: 1
  [2012-02-27 16:07:48:469 'VcTaskMonitor' 3348 DEBUG] [vcTaskMonitor, 60] VcTaskMonitor destroyed for session[522d9d1d-5e88-7f2b-d7fa-5f3d650e1f9a]5237c999-7888-49dd-f065-0191254e9fbb
  [2012-02-27 16:07:48:469 'SingleHostScanTask.SingleHostScanTask{9}' 3348 ERROR] [singleHostScanTask, 399] SingleHostScan caught exception: Platform Configuration Error: /usr/sbin/esxupdate returned no results, exit status: 1 with code: -1
  [2012-02-27 16:07:48:484 'SingleHostScanTask.SingleHostScanTask{9}' 3348 ERROR] [vciTaskBase, 564] Task execution has failed: Platform Configuration Error: /usr/sbin/esxupdate returned no results, exit status: 1

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vSphere Update Manager 5.0.x
VMware vSphere Update Manager 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Update Manager 5.0.x

Cause

This issue can occur if the vmsyslogd server service is not running, which prevents the logs from being updated.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, ensure that the vmsyslog server service is running.

1. To check if the vmsyslogd service is running, run the command:
   
   ps | grep vmsyslogd
   
   If there is no output, the service is not running.
   
   
2. To start the vmsyslogd service, run the command:
   
   /usr/lib/vmware/vmsyslog/bin/vmsyslogd
   
   
3. To reload vmsyslogd , run the command:
   
   esxcli system syslog reload
   
   
4. To verify that the vmsyslogd service is running, re-run the command:
   
   ps | grep vmsyslogd

Note: If there are multiple hosts configured for syslogd, ensure that each host writes to a separate log file. To specify a separate log file, run this command:

esxcli system syslog config set --logdir-unique true