Using vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) to collect ESX and ESXi logs

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The VMware vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) can be configured to accept logs from your ESX and ESXi host. For more information about downloading, installing, and configuring vMA, see the vSphere Management Assistant Documentation.

For vMA 5.x, the vilogger command has been removed. The vma-support script has been provided to collect various system configuration information. For more information, see the Troubleshooting vMA section in the vSphere Management Assistance Guide for your version.

Symptoms:

Environment

VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable

Resolution

Configuring your VMware vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) appliance to collect the logs from an ESX/ESXi host:

1. Run this command to add the ESX/ESXi host to the vMA appliance:
   
   # sudo vifp addserver [ESX/ESXi IP or HOSTNAME]
   
   You are prompted for the root password for the target system.
   
   
2. Run this command to view the list of ESX/ESXi hosts connected to the vMA appliance.
   
   # sudo vifp listservers
   
   
3. Run this command to enable the vilogger interface and to configure vMA to collect log files from the target ESX/ESXi or vCenter Server hosts according to the specified log policy:
   
   # vilogger enable --server [ESX/ESXi IP or HOSTNAME] --numrotation <ROTATION: 1 to 1024> --maxfilesize <SIZE in MB: 1 to 1024> --collectionperiod <PERIOD in seconds: 10 to 3600>
   
   Where ESX/ESXi IP or HOSTNAME is the IP address or hostname of the ESX/ESXi host.
   
   For example, the command with default values is:
   
   # vilogger enable --server [ESX/ESXi IP or HOSTNAME] --numrotation 5 --maxfilesize 5 --collectionperiod 10

In the vMA 4.x versions, the logs are located at /var/log/vmware. In earlier vMA versions, the logs are located at /var/log/syslog.

Each host managed by the vMA appliance has a sub-directory within /var/log/vmware. Each of these sub-directories, in turn, contains the log files, such as hostd.log, messages.log, vmkernel.log, vmkwarning.log, and vpxa.log.

To read the log files, you can use commands such as tail -f. For example, to read the contents of the vpxa.log file, run this command:

# tail -f /var/log/vmware/<FQDN of Host>/vpxa.log

To specify a different log location, see the vilogger enable section of the vSphere Management Assistance Guide for your version.

To customize the options for the vilogger command, see vilogger Daemon and Log Management Commands in the vSphere Management Assistant Guide.

Additional Information

The syntax of the vilogger command is:

vilogger <command>

Where <command> can be one of the following:

• enable [--server <SERVER>]
  [--logname <LOGNAME>]
  [--collectionperiod <PERIOD in seconds: 10 to 3600>]
  [--numrotation <ROTATION: 1 to 1024>]
  [--maxfilesize <SIZE in MB: 1 to 1024>]
  
  
• disable [--server <SERVER>]
  [--logname <LOGNAME>]
  [--force]
  
  
• list [--server <SERVER>]
  [--logname <LOGNAME>]
  
  
• updatepolicy [--server <SERVER>]
  [--logname <LOGNAME>]
  [--collectionperiod <PERIOD in seconds: 10 to 3600>]
  [--numrotation <ROTATION: 1 to 1024>]
  [--maxfilesize <SIZE in MB: 1 to 1024>]
  
  
• help | --help | -h [<command name>]
  

To increase disk space on an installed vMA appliance refer to How to increase/resize vMA Disks.

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