How to Manually Generate and Collect a vIDB Cluster Log Bundle

Products

• VCF Operations

Issue/Introduction

If the vIDB cluster log bundle cannot be generated or downloaded, but is necessary for the investigation the manual steps in the Resolution below can be followed:

Example of when this may be necessary:

• vIDB update failure.
• vIDB communication with the Fleet is disconnected and unable to use Fleet Management to create/download.

Environment

VCF Operations 9.0

VIDB 9.0

Resolution

1. Access the vIDB cluster:
   SSH the vIDB cluster as vmware-system-user user and run the following command:
   
   sudo su
   
   
2. Set up Kubernetes environment variables with the following commands:
   
   export KUBECONFIG=/etc/kubernetes/admin.conf
K8S_TOKEN=$(kubectl get secrets synthetic-checker-krp -n vmsp-platform -ojsonpath={.data.token} | base64 -d)
PRIMARY_VIP=$(kubectl get gateway/vmsp-gateway -n istio-ingress -ojsonpath={.status.addresses[0].value})
   
   
3. Generate the log bundle:
   Send a POST request to initiate the bundle generation using the following command:
   (Note:The timeout is set to 120 seconds.)
   
   curl -k -XPOST -H "Authorization: Bearer ${K8S_TOKEN}" https://${PRIMARY_VIP}:30005/webhooks/vmsp-platform/supportbundle/generate -d '{"component": "vidb", "timeout":"120"}'

Example Success Return (Note the id for status check):
   {"statusCode":200,"running":true,"id":"######","statusURI":"/webhooks/vmsp-platform/supportbundle/generate/######","completedAt":null}
   
   
4. Check the bundle generation progress:
   Wait 5-10 minutes, then check the status using the id from the previous step. Replace <id> with the actual ID
   
   curl -k -XGET -H "Authorization: Bearer ${K8S_TOKEN}" https://${PRIMARY_VIP}:30005/webhooks/vmsp-platform/supportbundle/generate/<id>
   
   Example of In-Progress Return:
   {"statusCode":200,"running":true,"id":"######","statusURI":"/webhooks/vmsp-platform/supportbundle/generate/######","completedAt":null}
   
   Example of Ready Bundle Return (Note the download_url):
   {"statusCode":200,"output":"2026/02/11 09:16:28 ... ","outputValues":{"download_url":"https://#.#.#.#/supportbundles/vidb-bundle-################-################-####.tar.gz","expires_at":"2026-02-11 T17:11:14Z","message":"","status":{"message":"Successful","success":true}},"id":"######"}


5. List existing bundles (Optional):
   
   curl -k -XPOST -H "Authorization: Bearer ${K8S_TOKEN}" "https://${PRIMARY_VIP}:30005/webhooks/vmsp-platform/supportbundle/list"
   
   Example Result:
   {"statusCode":200,"output":"File list length: 1\n","running":false,"outputValues":{"bundles":[{"mtime":"Wed, 11 Feb 2026 09:16:43 GMT","name":"supportbundles/vidb-bundle-################-################-####.tar.gz","size":308810164}]},"id":"######","completedAt":"2026-02-11 T09:19:47Z"}


6. Download the bundle:
   Use the file name from the status check or list command to download the file to the current directory on the vIDB cluster node:
   
   curl -X GET -k -v -u vmware-system-user -O "https://${PRIMARY_VIP}/supportbundles/vidb-bundle-################-################-####.tar.gz"
   
   
7. Adjust file permissions:
   Change the file ownership to vmware-system-user for easy transfer:
   
   chown vmware-system-user vidb-bundle-################-################-####.tar.gz
   
   
8. Transfer the log bundle:
   Use a secure file transfer client (like WinSCP or Filezilla) to SCP into the vIDB cluster and download the log bundle to your local desktop.