Day: 9 February 2013 | Electric Monk

Archive for February 2013

Install and Configure VMware ESXi Dump Collector

February 9, 2013 Objective 6 Advanced Troubleshooting No comments

What is VMware ESXi Dump Collector?

ESXi hosts can be configured to dump the VMkernel memory to a network server rather than to a local disk when the system has encountered a critical failure. The Collector collects the dumps across the network. This is useful for ESXi hosts that are configured by the VMware Auto Deploy process and might not have local storage. A core dump is the state of working memory in the event of host failure.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have administrator privileges
Verify that the host machine has Windows Installer 3.0 or later.
Verify that the host machine has a supported processor and operating system. The Dump Collector supports the same processors and operating systems as vCenter Server. See vCenter Server Software Requirements and vCenter Server and vSphere Client Hardware Requirements.
Verify that the host machine has a valid IPv4 address. You can install the Dump Collector on a machine in an IPv4-only or IPv4/IPv6 mixed-mode network environment, but you cannot install the Dump Collector on a machine in an IPv6-only environment.
If you are using a network location for the Dump Collector repository, make sure the network location is mounted.

Install and Configure

Open the vCenter Installer and select ESXi Dump Collector

Select your language

Select Next

Click Next

Click I accept > Next

Select the folder locations you want

Select the type of installation

Enter the vCenter details

Say Yes to the SSL Cert

Select the Port

Specify the name on the network

Click Install

You can then see the icon for the VMware ESXi Dump Collector on the Home Page

Set up an ESXi system to use ESXi Dump Collector by running esxcli
system coredump in the local ESXi shell or by using vCLI
Run esxcli system coredump network set –interface-name=vmk0 –server-ipv4=192.168.232.30 –server-port=6500
Run esxcli system coredump network set –enable true
Run esxcli system coredump network get to check everything is setup as expected

Under Home > Administration > VMware ESXi Dump Collector, you will now see the following

VMware Dump Collector Doc

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1032051

Configuring and Testing Centralised Logging Configuration

February 9, 2013 Objective 6 Advanced Troubleshooting No comments

Commands for configuring Syslog

Procedure for configuring and Testing Logging

When everything has been installed configured correctly in terms of the Syslog Collector, log files should show up in the Syslog server following the last pieces of config information as per below

Log into vCenter
Check on each host that the firewall has been adjusted to allow syslog

Go to Home > Administration > Network SysLog Collector
You will see information related to the setup and the log file locations

Open an SSH session on every host and type the following 2 commands
Don’t forget to reload the configuration

You can check if this been set in the hosts Advanced Settings
Assuming you are sending logs to a Syslog collector named loghost.company.corp, you would enter one of the following in the Syslog.global.logHost field:
udp://loghost.company.corp:514
tcp://loghost.company.corp:514
ssl://loghost.company.corp:1514

Go to c:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Syslog Collector\Data
You should be able to see a folder created for each host called the host name

If you go back to the Network Syslog collector and you are not seeing your hosts but you are getting logs collected in your designated location then log out and into vClient again

What you will see

A folder has been created for every ESXi host, identified by the management IP address;
In each folder a single file, named syslog.log, containing entries from the Hostd.log and the Vpxa.log

If logging does not show up, try the following:

Check the configuration of the ESXi host, especially the syntax of the loghost
Check the configuration of the ESXi firewall, outgoing syslog allowed
On the ESXi host, try restarting the Managent Agent. From the DCUI or # /sbin/services.sh restart
On the Syslog server, also check the firewall settings, is incoming traffic allowed?
Try to connect to the Syslog server using the telnet command, e.g.: > telnet Syslog server> 514
In case you use the “Network Syslog Collector”, review the settings
Restart the vClient as this sometimes refreshes the Network Syslog Collector View

VMware Doc

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2003322

Installation of Syslog Collector

February 9, 2013 Objective 6 Advanced Troubleshooting No comments

What is Syslog Collector?

You can install the Syslog Collector on the same machine as the associated vCenter Server, or on a different machine that has network connection to the vCenter Server. The Syslog Collector service binds to an IPv4 address for communication with vCenter Server, and does not support IPv6. The vCenter Server can be on a host machine in an IPv4-only, IPv4/IPv6 mixed-mode, or IPv6-only network environment, but the machine that connects to the vCenter Server through the vSphere Client must have an IPv4 address for the Syslog Collector service to work

Syslog Collector is included in the vCenter appliance installation by default.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have administrator privileges.
Verify that the host machine has Windows Installer 3.0 or later.
Verify that the host machine has a supported processor and operating system. The Syslog Collector supports the same processors and operating systems as vCenter Server. See vCenter Server Software Requirements and vCenter Server and vSphere Client Hardware Requirements.
Determine whether to install the Syslog Collector as a standalone instance or to integrate the Syslog Collector with a vCenter Server.
The Syslog Collector is not supported for integration with vCenter Server versions earlier than version 5.0.
Verify that the host machine has a valid IPv4 address. You can install the Syslog Collector on a machine in an IPv4-only or IPv4/IPv6 mixed-mode network environment, but you cannot install the Syslog Collector on a machine in an IPv6-only environment

Instructions for Install