/var/run/log inside the ESXi Support Bundle is empty and only contains vit.conf.backup

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• The /var/run/log inside the ESXi Support Bundle is empty.
  
  
• On navigating inside the same, the only file available is vit.conf.backup.
  
  
• The scratch partition is configured to utilize a persistent location.
  
  
• The persistent location is an NFS share.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi
VMware vCenter Server

Cause

vmsyslogd does not create log files with execute access. In such situations, there is an Access Control List (ACL) enforced by the NFS server. This behavior can be confirmed by relocating the log directory to a VMFS volume and the logs can be seen collected without issues. This is because the permissions are handled natively by ESXi without external ACL interference.

Resolution

• Check with the NFS admin to see if that is the case, and remove any access control lists applied that can impact the log collection.
• If the above cannot be done, move the scratch to a VMFS-based volume.