Changing the location of ESX core dumps

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to change the location where ESX creates its core dumps.

Symptoms:

core-dump

Environment

VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESX Server 3.0.x
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x

Resolution

You may want to change the location for a variety of reasons, such as disk space issues.

By default, the value Misc.CosCorefile on your ESX host is automatically set to be the first available VMFS datastore during boot. You can change the Misc.CosCorefile value to a location of your choice.

Note: The Misc.CosCorefile value must be a VMFS datastore. If it is set to a non-VMFS location, it resets to the first available VMFS datastore during a reboot.

To change the location of the core dumps:

1. Launch vSphere Client.
2. Click the ESX host.
3. Click the Configuration tab, and navigate to Software > Advanced Settings.
4. In the left-hand pane, click Misc.
5. In the right-hand pane, change the Misc.CosCorefile value to a VMFS datastore of your choice.
6. Click OK.

Additional Information

For more information about collecting log files after a core dump occurs, see Extracting the log file after an ESX or ESXi host fails with a purple screen error (1006796).