VMware Logs 2

ESXi Host Logs

Component	Location	Purpose
1	VMkernel	/var/log/vmkernel.log	ESXi
2	VMkernel warnings	/var/log/vmkwarning.log	Records activities related to virtual machines
3	VMkernel summary	/var/log/vmksummary.log	Used to determine uptime and availability statistics for ESXi (comma separated)
4	ESXi host agent log	/var/log/hostd.log	Contains information about the agent that manages and configures the ESXi host and its virtual machines
5	vCenter agent log	/var/log/vpxa.log	Contains information about the agent that communicates with vCenter Server (if the host is managed by vCenter Server)
6	Shell log	/var/log/shell.log	ESXi Shell as well as shell events (for example, when the shell was enabled)
7	Authentication	/var/log/auth.log	Contains all events related to authentication for the local system
8	System messages	/var/log/syslog.log	Contains all general log messages and can be used for troubleshooting. This information was formerly located in the messages log file
9	Virtual machines	The same directory as the affected virtual machine’s configuration files, named vmware.log and vmware*.log. For example, /vmfs/volumes/datastore/virtual machine/vwmare.log	Contains virtual machine power events, system failure information, tools status and activity, time sync, virtual hardware changes, vMotion migrations, machine clones, and so on

The VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.x logs are located in the /var/log/vmware/

	vCenter Server Appliance Log Location	Purpose
10	vpxd/vpxd.log	The main vCenter Serverlog
11	vpxd/vpxd-profiler.log	Profile metrics for operations performed in vCenter Server
12	vpxd/vpxd-alert.log	Non-fatal information logged about the vpxd process
13	perfcharts/stats.log	VMware Performance Charts
14	eam/eam.log	VMware ESX Agent Manager
15	invsvc	VMware Inventory Service
16	netdumper	VMware vSphere ESXi Dump Collector
17	vapi	VMware vAPI Endpoint
18	vmdird	VMware Directory Service daemon
19	syslog	vSphere Syslog Collector
20	vmware-sps/sps.log	VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage Service
21	vpostgres	vFabric Postgres database service
22	vsphere-client	VMware vSphere Web Client
23	vws	VMware System and Hardware Health Manager
24	workflow	VMware vCenter Workflow Manager
25	SSO	VMware Single Sign-On

https://www.altaro.com/vmware/vsphere-log-files/

VMware vSphere 6.5 ASM DISK configuration

VMware vSphere 6.5 ASM DISK configuration 

In this article i'm posting simple steps to create ASM Disk in VMware 6.5 and only i have covered the VMware portion of this. not the Oracle ASM Disk configuration it self. you can find plenty of articles regarding ASM Disk configurations on the web.

Both VM's should be in power off state to proceed with this configuration,

1. As first step you need to add new SCSI Controller to the VM, you could add disk to the Existing Controller ,but adding to a separate controller is always recommended,  

Go to the first Node -> Configurations -> Edit -> add New SCSI Controller 

 

Make sure the Controller Type change to "VMware Paravirtual"  and Set SCSI Bus Sharing to "None"



2. Now you can proceed with New Disk additions 

Go to the first Node -> Configurations -> Edit -> add New Hard Disk ( in My case DB Team requested 350GB disk and this can be vary on your requirement )

And change
Disk Type  - Thick provision eager zero ( Disk space will be claim when created and all the blocked will be zeroed)
Sharing - Multi-Writer ( Enable Multi writer flag)
Disk mode - Independent - Persistent ( Shared disks will be Exclude Snapshot operation if any)
and Finally select newly created SCSI controller as Virtual Device Node



once this is done it will take some time to create the Disk since this is a Thick Provision Eger Zero Disk .

once this is done , go to the 2nd node and add SCSI controller with same settings
then add new Disk and Add existing Disk and brows and point to the disk created for first node,
and change settings identical to the First node . 

once this is done you can power up the VM handover to the DB team for any Oracle ASM configuration

Get Virtual Machines provisioned Disk size for a list of VMs

Below is a script to get VM provisioned Disk size from list of VMs in a .txt file

you will be getting Total provisioned Disk size for each VM in the list and output will be save to a CSV file 


#Get Virtual Machines Disk size for a list
$vmList = Get-Content D:\temp\inputFile.txt
$results= foreach ($vmName in $vmList) {Get-VM $vmName | Select-Object Name,@{n="HardDiskSizeGB"; e={(Get-HardDisk -VM $_ | Measure-Object -Sum CapacityGB).Sum}}}
$results | Export-Csv "D:\temp\file.csv" 


Redirecting to a CSV file
| Export-Csv "D:\temp\file.csv


Invoke lines from a text file to Power CLI
$vmList = Get-Content D:\temp\inputFile.txt
 

VCSA 6.5 Patching Failed - expired password for user root (root enforced)

VCSA 6.5 Patching Failed - expired password for user root (root enforced)
login to the https://vcs002.local:5480 and

Update -> Check Updates -> Install Updates
**** First login to VCSA and put a tail for the logs.****

root@vcs002 [ ~ ]# tail -f /var/log/vmware/messagesThis way you can identify if there any issue with the VCSA Patching - this will show real time logs in the VCSA

once patching started it will failed and you will loss connect to VCSA appliance Management port 5480..

https://vcs002.local:5480

then you can noticed bellow error in the logs,

root@vcs002 [ ~ ]# tail -f /var/log/vmware/messages

2018-09-18T02:47:56.506851+00:00 vcs002 chsh[3552]: Authentication token is no longer valid; new one required

2018-09-18T02:48:01.070418+00:00 vcs002 useradd[4321]: pam_unix(useradd:account): expired password for user root (root enforced)

2018-09-18T02:48:01.071122+00:00 vcs002 useradd[4321]: Authentication token is no longer valid; new one required

 

that means root password for VCSA was expired and you will be needing to reset it before proceed with the upgrade. ( By default root password is set to expire on VCSA)

first reboot the VCSA from the Host and press e

Then edit the GNU grub and add rw init=/bin/bash and press F10 to boot the appliance with change boot

once booted reset the password ( you can reuse the OLD Password )

you might also need to delete logs from the VCSA.

once this is done restart the appliance and continue with the VCSA Patching .