introduction to vsphere logs

© 2015 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved. NetApp Confidential – Limited Use 1

Kaushik ChakrabortyMar 2016

Introduction toVMware vSphere logs

© 2014 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved. NetApp Proprietary – Limited Use Only2

PURPOSETo familiarize with different categories of logs in the vSphere environment• vCenter Server logs• vCenter Inventory Service• vSphere Profile Driven Storage• vCenter Single Sign-ON• vSphere Web Client

SCOPEConsidering the fact that we (NetApp) do not have the source code for the VMware product it’s difficult to make sense of the code specific logging made in various logs. So we would rather keep the scope of the presentation to the introduction of various logs in the VMware environment.


METHOD FOLLOWED : • VMware KB Articles

• Self learning by selecting individual logs and performing different operations in VMware vSphere Web Client.

• From past experience


Log Categories


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

•vCenter Server 5.x and earlier versions on Windows XP, 2000, 2003: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware\VirtualCenter\Logs\

•vCenter Server 5.x and earlier versions on Windows Vista, 7, 2008: C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs\

•vCenter Server Appliance 5.x: /var/log/vmware/vpx/

•vCenter Server Appliance 5.x UI: /var/log/vmware/vami

Notable Logs : 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/ESX hosts.

Some health reporting logs – ls.log (Licensing Services Extension), sms.log (Storage Monitoring Service Extension) , eam.log (ESX Agent

Monitor Extension), jointtool.log (VMwareVCMSDS service and ADAM database objects < user account management >)

wrapper.log - This file provides information about the status of the Java runtime environment


vCenter Inventory ServiceLocation : The vCenter Inventory Service logs are placed in a different directory on disk depending on the vCenter Server version and the deployed platform:

• vCenter Server 5.x and earlier versions on Windows XP, 2000, 2003: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\

Infrastructure\Inventory Service\Logs

• vCenter Server 5.x and earlier versions on Windows Vista, 7, 2008: C:\ProgramData\VMware\Infrastructure\Inventory Service\

Logs

• vCenter Server 5.x Linux Virtual Appliance: /var/log/vmware/vpx/inventoryservice

Logs : ds.log - The main vCenter Inventory Service logs, consisting of all vCenter Server and Single Sign-On

connections, internal tasks and events, and information about the xDB.

ds-perf.log - Performance related logs for vCenter Inventory Service.

vim-is-install.log - This file contains information about the installation of Inventory Service including

computer name, operating system revision, the date of installation and the number of revisions that have been installed or

upgraded on the system.

wrapper.log - This file provides information about the status of the Java runtime environment.


Profile Driven StorageLocation : The vSphere Profile-Driven Storage logs are placed in a different directory on disk depending on the vCenter Server version and the deployed platform:

• vCenter Server 5.x and earlier versions on Windows XP, 2000, 2003: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\

Infrastructure\Profile-Driven Storage\Logs

• vCenter Server 5.x and earlier versions on Windows Vista, 7, 2008: C:\ProgramData\VMware\Infrastructure\

Profile-Driven Storage\Logs

• vCenter Server 5.x Linux Virtual Appliance: /var/log/vmware/vpx/sps

Logs : sps.log - The main Profile-Driven Storage logs, consisting of all vCenter Server and Management Webservices connections,

internal tasks and events, and information about the storage profile integrity.

vim-sps-install.log - This file consists of information about the installation of Profile-Driven Storage including computer name, operating system revision, the date of installation and the number of revisions that have been installed or upgraded on the system.

wrapper.log - This file provides information about the status of the Java runtime environment


vCenter Single Sign-OnLocation : The SSO logs are placed in a different directory on disk depending on the vSphere version and the deployed platform:

Vsphere 5.1 using vCenter Single Sign-On 5.1: vCenter Server 5.1.x on Windows Server 2003 – C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer\logs\ vCenter Server 5.1.x on Windows Server 2008/2012 – C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer\logs\ vCenter Server Virtual Appliance 5.1.x – /var/log/vmware/sso/

Vsphere 5.5 using vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5: vCenter Server 5.5.x on Windows Server 2003 – %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\CIS\ vCenter Server 5.5.x on Windows Server 2008/2012 – C:\ProgramData\VMware\CIS\ vCenter Server Virtual Appliance 5.5.x – /var/log/vmware/sso/


vCenter Single Sign-On 5.1.0

SSO logs grouped by component and purpose include: catalina.date.log – Standard Tomcat logs imsTrace.log and imsSystem.log – RSA’s Castle logs ssoAdminServer.log – SSO admin server lookupServer.log – Lookup server log replicationTransport.log – Replication

The database configuration can be found at : C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer\webapps\ims\web-inf\classes\jndi.properties C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer\webapps\lookupservice\WEB-INF\classes\config.properties

vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5.0vCenter single sing-on components -

https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.upgrade.doc%2FGUID-90C1E3DC-4397-4BF0-808E-DF3802E56BC6.html

Notable SSO logs grouped by component and purpose includes: logs\vmdird\vdcpromo.log – Promotion and demotion operation information for the SSO instance when joined or removed

from a linked configurations logs\vmdird\vmdir.log – Health reports for the VMware Directory Service (VMDir) service and the VMDir database logs\vmware-sso\vmware-sts-idmd.log – VMware Identity Management service run-time logs, time-stamped records of

user attempts when accessing SSO for administrative purposes logs\vmware-sso\vmware-sts-idmd-perf.log – VMware Identity Management service performance counter logs runtime\VMwareSTS\logs\ssoAdminserver.log – SSO admin server runtime\VMwareSTS\logs\lookupServer.log – Lookup server log runtime\VMwareSTS\logs\catalina. date.log – Standard Tomcat logs runtime\VMwareSTS\logs\vmware-identity-sts.log – VMware Security Token Service run-time logs, time-stamped records of

issuing, validating, and renewal of security tokens. runtime\VMwareSTS\logs\vmware-identity-sts-perf.log – VMware Security Token Service performance counter logs.

https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vsphere.upgrade.doc/GUID-90C1E3DC-4397-4BF0-808E-DF3802E56BC6.html




vSphere Web ClientLocation : The vSphere Web Client logs are placed in a different directory on disk depending on vCenter Server version and the deployed platform: vSphere 5.0:

Windows: C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere Web Client\DMServer\serviceability\ Linux: /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-client/server/serviceability/

vSphere 5.1: Windows: C:\ProgramData\VMware\vSphere Web Client\serviceability\ Linux: /var/log/vmware/vsphere-client/serviceability/

vSphere 5.5: Windows: C:\ProgramData\VMware\vSphere Web Client\serviceability\ Linux: /var/log/vmware/vsphere-client/

Logs :

logs\vsphere_client_virgo.log - The main vSphere Web Client log, consisting of all communication between underlying Flex endpoint connections, internal tasks and events

logs\access\localhost_access_log. date.txt – Individual HTTP requests from the Web browser

eventlogs/eventlog.log – Time stamps of startup and shutdown of the vSphere Web Client service

Additional log files:

C:\ProgramData\VMware\vSphere Web Client\Logs\vim-ngc-install.log – Consists of information about the installation of the vSphere Web Client including computer name, Operating System revision, the date of installation and the number of revisions that have been installed/upgraded on the system

C:\ProgramData\VMware\vSphere Web Client\Logs\wrapper.log – Provides information about the state of the Java runtime environment.


Vmware vCenter Sever 6.0 logs The VMware vCenter Server 6.0 logs are located in the %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMWare\vCenterServer\logs folder. The VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 logs are located in the /var/log/vmware/ folder.

vCenter Server vCenter Server Appliance Description

vmware-vpx\vpxd.log vpxd/vpxd.log The main vCenter Serverlog

vmware-vpx\vpxd-profiler.log vpxd/vpxd-profiler.log Profile metrics for operations performed in vCenter Server

vmware-vpx\vpxd-alert.log vpxd/vpxd-alert.log Non-fatal information logged about the vpxd process

perfcharts\stats.log perfcharts/stats.log VMware Performance Charts

eam\eam.log eam/eam.log VMware ESX Agent Manager

invsvc invsvc VMware Inventory Service

netdump netdumper VMware vSphere ESXi Dump Collector

vapi vapi VMware vAPI Endpoint

vmdird vmdird VMware Directory Service daemon

vmsyslogcollector syslog vSphere Syslog Collector

vmware-sps\sps.log vmware-sps/sps.log VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage Service

vpostgres vpostgres vFabric Postgres database service

vsphere-client vsphere-client VMware vSphere Web Client

vws vws VMware System and Hardware Health Manager

workflow workflow VMware vCenter Workflow Manger

SSO SSO VMware Single Sign-On


References

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1021804 http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2056632 http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2056646 http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2033430 http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1003687 http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2004090 http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2038036 http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2110014 https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2032076 http://virtualizationexpress.com/2014/01/01/log-locations-vmware-products/

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1021804










https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2032076

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2032076

http://virtualizationexpress.com/2014/01/01/log-locations-vmware-products/

http://virtualizationexpress.com/2014/01/01/log-locations-vmware-products/

introduction to vsphere logs

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