Collecting diagnostic information for VMware Live Recovery (VLR)

Products

• VMware Live Recovery
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

VMware Technical Support routinely requests diagnostic information from you when a support request is handled. This diagnostic information contains product specific logs and configuration files from the host on which the product is run. The information is gathered using a specific script or tool for each product.

This article provides procedures for obtaining diagnostic information for VMware Live Recovery (VLR). The diagnostic information collected can then be uploaded to VMware Technical Support. To uniquely identify your information, use the Support Request (SR) number you received when you opened your Support Request.

• For information on opening a support request, see How to File a Support Request.
• For information on uploading your support files, see Uploading diagnostic information to VMware by Broadcom.
• For information on obtaining diagnostic information for other VMware products, see Collecting diagnostic information for VMware products.

Environment

VMware Live Recovery

Resolution

There are several methods for collecting VMware Live Recovery (VLR) logs from the VLR server. For more information see Troubleshooting VMware Live Site Recovery or Collecting VMware Live Site Recovery Log Files.

To collect logs from VMware Live Site Recovery servers:

• In SRM 8.x, use the vSphere Web Client to download logs from each server to a user-specified location:

                 1. In the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client, click Site Recovery > Open Site Recovery.
                 2. On the Live Site Recovery home tab, select a site pair and click View Details.
                 3. On the Site Pair tab, click Summary and then click Actions in the VMware Live Site Recovery box.
                 4. Select a server and click Export Logs.
                 5. Click Download to download the logs.

Logs can be downloaded also from the VAMI page as per the screenshot below for 8.x:

• In VLR 8.5 and above, one can generate a log bundle from the VLR Appliance command line:

1. Log in to the VMware Live Site Recovery Appliance host machine and open a command prompt.
2. Change the working directory to /opt/vmware/dr/bin.
3. Run the following command:
   1.    If you are logged in as admin user: sudo ./dr-support-linux.sh.
   2.    If you are logged in as root user: ./dr-support-linux.sh.

• You can access the generated log bundles from the /var/log/vmware/Support or the /opt/vmare/support/logs/Support directories.
• You would need to download the output file using a scp client like WinSCP, and then proceed to upload that file to the support portal.
   
• If the issue is related to a Test Failover or actual Failover, then the failed Recovery Plan export log is invaluable in troubleshooting the issue. To generate the Export Report for the failed Recovery Plan:
  1. In the left pane, click Recovery Plans and select the Recovery Plan which had the issue.
  2. Select the Plan Name which is showing an Error in the Result column.
  3. On the Plan Name with the error click the Export Report option to generate the report for the failed Test Failover or actual Failover.
  4. Save the file to your desktop and upload this file with the VLR system logs.

Depending on the issue, VMware support may need VMware Live Site Recovery logs from the protected site, the recovery site, or both.

VLR log bundles do not specify the role of the site where they were collected, as a single site may have both protected and recovery roles at the same time.  VMware by Broadcom recommends that you prefix the words protected or recovery to each log bundle name before uploading, so as to help VMware support quickly distinguish between log files. For example:

• protected-srm-support-MM-DD-YYYY-hh-mm.zip
• recovery-srm-support-MM-DD-YYYY-hh-mm.zip

If the issue being investigated is related to virtual machine Failover or Failback, an export of the History Reports are required

Follow these steps to export the History Reports:

1. Connect to vCenter Server using the vSphere Client as a user with administrative privileges.
2. In the vSphere Client Home page, click the Site Recovery icon.
3. Click Recovery Plans.
4. Select the previously-failed recovery plan and click the History tab.
5. Click Export Report and save all the relevant reports.
   
   Note: If a Test Failover that was previously successful fails, include the last successful report.

Additional Information