VCF Operations Collector Fails with Syslog.global.logHost Invalid Port Error on ESXi 7.x

Products

• VCF Operations
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Operations 9.1 Collector fails to configure the Syslog.global.logHost value on legacy ESXi 7.x hosts.
  
  
• vCenter tasks display "A general system error occurred" and vmodl.fault.SystemError with the reason "Internal error" when attempting to update option values.
  
  
• Manual execution of the esxcli system syslog config set command on the ESXi host fails with the following validation error: Invalid port: 514?formatter=RFC_5424&framing=octet_counting for host: tcp://<REDACTED_IP>:514?formatter=RFC_5424&framing=octet_counting, must be in range 0-65535.

Environment

• VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Operations 9.1
• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

Cause

VCF Operations 9.x automatically injects the query string ?formatter=RFC_5424&framing=octet_counting into the syslog URI to enforce RFC 5424 compliant message formatting during log collection activation. The legacy ESXi 7.x syslog configuration parser (hostd and esxcli) does not support advanced URI query parameters for the Syslog.global.logHost setting. The parser incorrectly evaluates the entire string appended after the colon (e.g., 514?formatter=RFC_5424&framing=octet_counting) as the destination port. This results in an integer validation failure and triggers the exception.

(RFC 5424 support was added to ESXi syslog in 8.0 GA).

Resolution

Deactivate the built-in VCF Operations Log Collection for all legacy ESXi 7.x hosts.

Managing Collection from Log Sources

Perform the following steps to deactivate log collection for legacy ESXi hosts in VCF Operations 9.1:

1. Log into VMware Cloud Foundation Operations.

2. Navigate to Administration > Configurations > Log Management > Log Collection.

3. Under vCenter, hit the three dots and choose Edit.

4. Expand ESX.

5. Check the box to Edit Log collection configuration.

6. Uncheck the Activate box next to ESX logs.

7. Click Save to apply the configuration.