Introduction
This document describes all of the logs available on ESX Server 3.
As well as providing the location, purpose and management details for each log, there is also a link for each log to another analysis document that has a list of messages that form red (critical), orange (warning) and black (trend) lists.
NOTE This doc is a work in progress - want to help complete it? PM/email schambers
Intended Audience
VMware Certified Professionals (VCPs) who are designing and implementing log management for VI3.
Outline
Introduction to ESX Server 3 Logs
vmkernel
vmkwarning
vmksummary
hostd
vpxa
HA
COS
esxupdate
boot
webAccess
firewall
secure
1. Introduction to ESX Server 3 Logs |
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I've grouped the ESX logs into three parts:
Hypervisor
Management
Console OS (COS)
2. vmkernel |
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Location
/var/log/vmkernel
Purpose
VMkernel log, records activities related to the virtual machines and ESX hosts.
Management
Logs rotated by logrotate, see KB 3402740.
Rotated with a numeric extension, current log has no extension and the next newest one has a .1 extension
Analysis
3. vmkwarning |
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Location
/var/log/vmkwarning
Purpose
VMkernel Warnings log, records activities with the virtual machines, a subset of the vmkernel log.
Management
Logs rotated by logrotate, see KB 3402740.
Rotated with a numeric extension, current log has no extension and the next newest one has a .1 extension
Analysis
4. vmksummary |
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Location
/var/log/vmksummary/var/log/vmksummary.txt
Purpose
VMkernel Summary log, used to determine uptime and availability statistics for ESX hosts human-readable summary found in /var/log/vmksummary.txt.
Management
Analysis
5. hostd |
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Location
/var/log/vmware/hostd.log
Purpose
ESX Server host agent log, contains information on the agent that manages and configures the ESX host and its virtual machines.
Manageement
hostd.log is symbollically linked to the current real file. Do an 'ls -l hostd.log' to see the link, or just browse (with less|more|tail) hostd.log to open the real file.
Analysis
6. vpxa |
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Location
/var/log/vmware/vpxa.log
Purpose
Vpxa log, contains information on the agent that communicates with vCenter Server.
Management
vpxa.log is symbollically linked to the current real file. Do an 'ls -l vpxa.log' to see the link, or just browse (with less|more|tail) hostd.log to open the real file.
Analysis
7. HA |
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Location
/var/log/vmware/aam
Purpose
High Availability (HA) log, logs information related to the High Availability service. In ESX 3.0.x these logs were in /opt/LGTOaam512/ instead.
Management
TBD
Analysis
TBD
8. COS |
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Location
/var/log/messages
Purpose
Service console log, contains all general log messages used to troubleshoot virtual machines or an ESX host.
Management
TBD
Analysis
TBD
9. esxupdate |
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Location
/var/log/vmware/esxupdate.log
Purpose
ESX Update log, logs all updates done through the esxupdate tool.
Management
TBD
Analysis
TBD
10. boot |
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Location
/var/log/vmware/esxcfg-boot.log
Purpose
ESX Boot log, logs all ESX boot events.
Management
Rotated with a numeric extension, current log has no extension and the next newest one has a .1 extension.
Analysis
TBD
11. webAccess |
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Location
/var/log/vmware/webAccess
Purpose
Web Access log, records information on Web-based access to an ESX host.
Management
TBD
Analysis
TBD
12. firewall |
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Location
/var/log/vmware/esxcfg-firewall.log
Purpose
ESX Firewall log, logs all firewall rule events.
Management
Rotated with a numeric extension, current log has no extension and the next newest one has a .1 extension.
Analysis
TBD
13. secure |
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Location
/var/log/secure
Purpose
Authentication log, contains records of connections that require authentication, such as VMware daemons and actions initiated by the xinetd daemon.
Management
Logs rotated by logrotate, see KB 3402740.
Analysis
TBD
Resources
Authors
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