Troubleshooting VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle (formerly vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager) using Logs and client browser development tools

Products

• VMware Aria Suite

Issue/Introduction

This article provides insights into how to troubleshoot VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle using application logs and Dev Tools.

 

Resolution

See the Workaround below for additional details.

Workaround:

VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle supports different applications that allows manage the Lifecycle of the VMware Aria Suite Products. In the VMware documentation, each of the services is explained in the section Accessing the VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle dashboard The main log is the Engine log /var/log/vrlcm/vmware_vrlcm.log. This log traces requests from all the VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle services except for Content Management. Therefore, the engine log is a key tool useful when troubleshooting an important number of requests on VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle, such as:

• Products Upgrades, Upgrade precheck, Scale Out, Scale Up, Import, Export, Password Updates, Inventory Sync, Snapshots log bundle activities, Power ON/OFF, and others.
• Binaries, PS PACK download.
• Certificate replacement, creation, CSR creation, and others.

For Content Management requests, Aria Lifecycle uses /var/log/vrlcm/blackstone-spring.log

In order to filter the logs for a specific request, follow the below steps.

1. Any activity performed will create a Request under Lifecycle Operations > Requests, and each of the requests will be listed. Then, select the request of interest and click on Request Status.
2. In the request page capture the Request ID and Error ID in order to filter the Engine logs /var/log/vrlcm/vmware_vrlcm.log 

Other VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle logs

• /var/log/vmware-vmsc.log traces the appliance activities such as: Power events, VM Tools status, and snapshots events.
• For vRLSCM upgrades, besides the engine logs, the logs located in the following directories are used: /opt/vmware/var/log/vami and /var/log/bootstrap 
• For Content Management requests vRSLCM uses /var/log/vrlcm/blackstone-spring.log

Troubleshooting VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle using DevTools

In case the UI is not providing an obvious error, a useful tool available is your client browser Development tools (DevTools for Google Chrome).  This helps trace the API calls that the VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle UI is performing. In order to access the DevTools, follow the next steps.

1. Press F12 in the browser or you can use Ctrl + Shit + I for a Chromium-based browser.
2. Select the Network tab.
3. Reproduce the issue, then search for HTTP error codes (in red) in the Status column.
4. Click on the error in order to retrieve additional information 
5. The information captured with the DevTools can be saved as a HAR file. Right click in the name column and then select Save all as HAR with content. If required file a Service Request attaching this information.