Failed to collect metrics Errno 13 Permission denied in NSX Manager

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• VMware NSX continuously generates the following error message in the syslog on an affected manager node.
• Failed to collect metrics, Exception:[Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/nvpapi/api_server.log.##.gz'
• The stack trace includes the following exception:

PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/nvpapi/api_server.log.##.gz'

The issue can persist for several days, generating repetitive log output without impacting functional operations.

Environment

VCF  Operations for Networks

VMware NSX

Cause

The metric collector attempts to retrieve data every 10 minutes but fails because it lacks the necessary file permissions to read the compressed, rotated log file (api_server.log.##.gz). This occurs due to incorrect file permissions assigned to the specific archive file during a log rotation cycle.

Resolution

• No immediate action is required. This is a cosmetic metric collection error that does not impact the performance or stability of the NSX Manager.
• The issue will automatically resolve itself during the next log rotation cycle when the improperly permissioned log file (api_server.log.10.gz) is overwritten or deleted.
• To manually stop the continuous error logging before the next scheduled rotation, administrators can verify and correct the file permissions for the affected .gz archive .