Enabling debug logging on the VMware vSphere 5.x/6.x/7.x/8.0 Web Client services

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to enable debug logging for the vSphere Web Client Service on the Windows operating system and for the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (VCSA) for troubleshooting purposes.

 

Caution: Enabling debug logging for a longer duration might cause performance degradation on vCenter Server. Only enable debug logging for troubleshooting purposes. VMware recommends reverting to default logging (info level) immediately after the troubleshooting is complete. VMware does not recommend enabling trivia/verbose logging in a production environment. Perform the steps in this article only after consulting VMware technical support.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.0.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.5.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.7.x

Resolution

To enable debug logging for the vSphere Web Client service:

Note: Take a backup of the serviceability.xml file before modifying it.

1. Stop the vSphere Web Client service.
2. Navigate to the configuration folder:

vCenter Server Appliance

• For vCenter Server Appliance 7.0 and 8.0 /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-ui/server/conf/serviceability.xml
• For vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-ui/server/conf/serviceability.xml (HTML5)
• For vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-client/server/configuration (Flash)
• For vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 – /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-client/server/configuration
• For vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 – /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-client/server/configuration
• For vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 – /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-client/server/configuration
• For vCenter Server Appliance 5.1 – /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-client/server/config
• For vCenter Server Appliance 5.0 – /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-client/server/configuration

vCenter Server on Windows

• For vCenter Server 6.7 - C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\runtime\vsphere-ui\server\configuration
• For vCenter Server 6.5 – C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\runtime\vsphere-client\server\configuration
• For vCenter Server 6.0 – C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\WebClient\server\configuration
• For vCenter Server 5.5 – C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphereWebClient\Server\configuration
• For vCenter Server 5.1 – C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphereWebClient\Server\config
• For vCenter Server 5.0 – C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere Web Client\DMServer\config

3. Open the serviceability.xml file using a text editor.
   
   Note: Take a backup of the serviceability.xml file before modifying it.
    
4. Edit the root level logging parameter by replacing the default INFO with DEBUG.
   
   For example:
   
   Change the serviceability.xml default configuration from:
   
   <root level="INFO">
   <appender-ref ref="SIFTED_LOG_FILE"></appender-ref>
   <appender-ref ref="LOG_FILE"></appender-ref>
   </root>
   
   to:
   
   <root level="DEBUG">
   <appender-ref ref="SIFTED_LOG_FILE"></appender-ref>
   <appender-ref ref="LOG_FILE"></appender-ref>
   </root>
5. Save and close the file.
6. Start the vSphere Web Client service.

Optional parameters

By default, there are four log files for rotation and each file has a size of 10MB. In some cases, this may not be sufficient for capturing all required information. You can increase the file size of each log or increase the number of logs using the <MaxFileSize> and <MaxIndex> parameters.

 

To set the optional parameters:

1. Open the serviceability.xml file using a text editor.
2. To change the number of log files:
    
   1. Locate the <MaxIndex> entry.
      
      Note: You can find this entry in two places within the file.
       
   2. Set this parameter to the required number of files. For example:
      
      <MaxIndex>number</MaxIndex>
      
      Where number is the number of files you want.
      
      Note: Maximum number of log iteration is 13.
3. To change the log file size:
    
   1. Locate the <MaxFileSize> entry.
      
      Note: You can find this entry in two places within the file.
       
   2. Set this parameter to the required size. For example:
      
      <MaxFileSize>size</MaxFileSize>
      
      Where size is the required size of files.
       
4. To add a logging section:
    
   1. Create a section to increase logging to Debug levels:
      
      <logger level="DEBUG" additivity="false" name="com.vmware">
      <appender-ref ref="SIFTED_LOG_FILE" />
      <appender-ref ref="Log_FILE" />
      </logger>
       
   2. Save the serviceability.xml file.
   3. Restart the vSphere Web Client service on the vCenter Server to apply the changes.
       
5. For more information about the location of vSphere Web Client Logs, see Location of vSphere Web Client service logs (2004090).

Additional optional logging parameters

The acceptable parameters for logging levels in the order of increasing verbosity are OFF, FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG, TRACE, ALL. The TRACE and ALL log levels options dump a significant amount of information to the log files.

Additional Information

Location of vSphere Web Client 5.x service logs
VMware vSphere 5.x/6.0 Web Client サービスでデバッグのログを有効にする
为 VMware vSphere 5.x/6.x Web Client 服务启用调试日志记录