vCenter Server native syslog log level filtering and forwarding capabilities

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to restrict or define specific log levels (such as filtering for only Error or Critical events) to be transmitted from vCenter Server (VC) to an external Syslog server, you may find that there are no native configuration options within the UI or CLI to perform this filtering.

Environment

• VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

vCenter Server does not possess native log filtering and forwarding capabilities to customize the levels of logs sent to a Syslog server. Current services utilize rsyslog configurations with a default log level of INFO. Additionally, syslog piping is no longer utilized in modern vCenter versions, rendering previous methods for this configuration invalid.

Resolution

This is a known product limitation. vCenter Server natively does not have the ability to filter and forward specific log levels to a remote syslog destination. All logs are forwarded at the level defined by the service (typically INFO).