Location of vCenter Server log files

Products

VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the default location of the vCenter Server logs.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.x
VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Resolution

The vCenter Server logs are placed in a different directory on disk depending on the vCenter Server version and the deployed platform.

vCenter Server 6.x on Windows - C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\Logs\<Service Name>
vCenter Server Appliance - /var/log/vmware/<Service Name>

Note: VMware has deprecated vCenter Server for Windows with the release of vSphere 6.7. The next major version of vSphere (not update release) will not include vCenter Server for Windows (vSphere 6.7 Release Notes).

vCenter Server logs are grouped by component and purpose. The below mentioned logs is not an exhaustive list.

vpxd.log: The main vCenter Server log, consisting of all vSphere Client and WebServices connections, internal tasks and events, and communication with the vCenter Server Agent (vpxa) on managed ESXi hosts.
vpxd-profiler.log, profiler.log, and scoreboard.log: Profiled metrics for operations performed in vCenter Server. Used by the VPX Operational Dashboard (VOD) accessible at https://VCHostnameOrIPAddress/vod/index.html.
vpxd-alert.log: Non-fatal information logged about the vpxd process (no longer present in 6.7/7.0/8.0)
cim-diag.log and vws.log: Common Information Model monitoring information, including communication between vCenter Server and managed hosts' CIM interface.
drmdump: Actions proposed and taken by VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), grouped by the DRS-enabled cluster managed by vCenter Server. These logs are compressed.
ls.log: Health reports for the Licensing Services extension, connectivity logs to vCenter Server.
vimtool.log: Dump of string used during the installation of vCenter Server with hashed information for DNS, username and output for JDBC creation.
stats.log: Provides information about the historical performance data collection from the ESXi hosts
sms.log: Health reports for the Storage Monitoring Service extension, connectivity logs to vCenter Server
eam.log: Health reports for the ESXi Agent Monitor extension, connectivity logs to vCenter Server
catalina.date.log and localhost.date.log: Connectivity information and status of the VMware Webmanagement Services
jointool.log: Health status of the VMwareVCMSDS service and individual ADAM database objects, internal tasks and events, and replication logs between linked-mode vCenter Servers.
Additional log files:
- manager.date.log
- host-manager.date.log
Note: As each log grows, it is rotated over a series of numbered component-nnn.log files. On some platforms, the rotated logs are compressed.

vCenter Server logs can be generated from:

The vSphere Client connected to vCenter Server 6.x/7.x/8.x: Click Home > Administration > System Logs.

Additional Information

For related information, see the main article in this series, Location of log files for VMware products.

Additional references: