Increasing the logging levels to verbose for vCenter Converter application components

Products

• Converter
• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• This KB provides the steps to increase the logging level for the VMware vCenter Converter in Windows Computers.
• After a failed conversion process, below log files are typically reviewed:

C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Agent\logs\vmware-converter-worker-#.log
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Agent\logs\vmware-converter-server-#.log
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Agent\logs\vmware-converter-agent-#.log

Note: Sometimes, warnings or errors are seen and do not contain sufficient data to point to a root cause. By default, vCenter Converter logs informational data or INFO level logging. This usually provides log data that states if a failure or configuration problem has been encountered, but it may not be verbose enough to point to the root cause.
Hence, changing the logging level to verbose increases the amount of detail that is logged and can assist in the evaluation of a suspected issue encountered during a conversion process.

Environment

• vCenter 7.x
• vCenter 8.x
• vCenter 9.x
• ESXi 7.x
• ESXi 8.x
• ESX 9.x
• Converter 6.x

Resolution

To increase the logging level of each vCenter Converter component, follow the below steps.

• Open each of these files for editing depending on the OS version:
  
  C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\converter-agent.xml
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\converter-server.xml
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\converter-worker.xml
  
  
• In each .xml file, locate the below section:
  
  <log>
<name>vmware-converter-worker</name>
<level>info</level>
</log>
  
  Note: The value in the <name> tags is the name of the file you have open.

• Adjust the <level>info</level> statement to read:
  
  <level>verbose</level>
  
  
• Restart below services from the Windows services console, to apply the new changes:
  
  
  • Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog.
  • Type services.msc and press Enter. This will open the Services management console.
  • Then restart the below services.

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Server
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Worker
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Agent


Additional Information

Note: Even though Linux-based P2V conversions are considered agentless, the agent log may still contain valuable data. Therefore, it should still be included in the initial review for diagnosing problems relating to conversion processes.

For more information, refer KB Collecting diagnostic information for VMware Converter