Collecting diagnostic information for VMware vCenter Server 7.x and 8.x

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vCenter Server 7.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

This article provides procedures for obtaining a vCenter Server support bundle for VMware vCenter Server.

 

VMware Technical Support routinely requests diagnostic information from you when a support request is handled. This diagnostic information contains product specific logs, configuration files, and data appropriate to the situation.

The information is gathered using a specific script or tool for each product and can include a host support bundle from the ESXi host and vCenter Server support bundle.

Data collected in a host support bundle may be considered sensitive. Additionally support bundles can include encrypted information from an ESXi host.

• For more information on what information is included in the support bundles, see Data collected when gathering diagnostic information from vSphere products.

The diagnostic information obtained by using this article is uploaded to VMware Technical Support. To uniquely identify your information, use the support case number you receive when you create the new case.

• For information on opening a support request, see Creating and managing Broadcom support cases.
• For information on uploading your support files, see Uploading files to cases on the Broadcom Support Portal.
• For information on obtaining diagnostic information for other VMware products, see Collecting diagnostic information for VMware products.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.x
VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Resolution

To collect the diagnostic information using the vSphere Client:

1. Connect to vCenter Server using the vSphere Client.
2. In the Hosts and Clusters view, select the vCenter server object
3. Right-click the vCenter Server object and select Export System Logs
   
4. Select the Include vCenter Server and vSphere UI Client logs option
   
5. Click Next and Finish

Note: To include ESXi host logs along with the vCenter log bundle, select the ESXi hosts for which the logs are needed

• The log bundle appears in the specified folder when the download is complete. The log bundle is named with the current date and time.

Example:  VMware-vCenter-support-yyyy-mm-dd@ HH-MM-SS.zip

To collect the diagnostic information using vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface (VAMI):

1. Login to VAMI using https://<vcenter-server-ip-or-fqdn>:5480
2. Click on "Action" and then select "Create Support Bundle"
3. Click Save

To collect the diagnostic information using the command:

1. Log in with SSH to the vCSA.
2. Since it logs in to the Appliance Shell in default, run the shell.set --enabled True command and shell command to launch the Bash.
3. Run the vc-support -l command to create a vCenter log bundle.
4. Confirm that the log bundle is created with the name that is displayed at the command execution.
5. Log in to the vCSA using SCP, copy the created vCenter log bundle from /storage/log to your machine.

Note: 

• If you attempt to download the generated log bundle from the VAMI GUI, you will need to do so within 12 hours of the log completing generation or the link will expire from the VAMI GUI and remove it from /storage/log.
• If you use WinSCP as an SCP tool, run chsh -s /bin/bash root command to change the vCSA default shell to Bash 
• To revert the change, run chsh -s /bin/appliancesh root

Additional Information

To simplify and expedite the log upload process, we recommend using the Diagnostics Log Assist feature in VCF Operations, which allows you to automatically upload log files. To get started with Please visit: Diagnostics Log Assist for Broadcom Cases.

Questions and Answers for Diagnostics for VMware Cloud Foundation

Collecting diagnostic information for ESX/ESXi hosts and vCenter Server using the vSphere Web Client

Collecting diagnostic information for VMware ESX/ESXi