Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

Using the vSphere Syslog Collector and want to change rotation/sizing?

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Yesterday I received a nice tip from @Shaun_Gee. During the installation of the vSphere Syslog Collector you have to select the max size of the log files and when a rotation will happen. But how do you change this after the installation? The answer is straight forward, but unfortunately not well documented, thanks Shaun for sharing.

The vSphere Syslog Collector settings can be found under:

  • Windows 2003 –> C:\Users\All Users\VMware\VMware Syslog Collector\vmconfig-syslog.xml
  • Windows 2008 –> C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Syslog Collector\vmconfig-syslog.xml

If you open this file you can change all the settings you configured during the installation.

<defaultValues>
<port>514</port>
<protocol>TCP,UDP</protocol>
<maxSize>2</maxSize>
<rotate>8</rotate>
<sslPort>1514</sslPort>
</defaultValues>

You never know when you might need it 🙂

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Comments

  2. Thank you for the information! If this thing would work right with my 4.x-Hosts, I would be totally happy… 🙁 (no CRLF in the logs –> unusable)

  3. Nice tip! Don’t forget to restart the ‘VMware Syslog Collector’ service once you’re done to apply the new settings

    • and run the ‘esxcli system syslog reload’ on each ESXi host for them to reappear in vCenter Server

  4. Hi guys,may i know what is the purpose of the syslog?i confuse with many logs in vsphere.tried to find this but i only found how to configure this and that but doesnt know what is all about?may i have your advise?

  5. Everything works fine except one issue. When I open log files I see that logs a recorded on one long-long line if to open in Notepad++ or like a trash in Windows Notepad.
    Like:

    Mar 26 15:03:06 Vpxa: [2013-03-26 15:03:06.141 179B3B90 verbose ‘App’ opID=HB-host-128@3223-9d] [VpxaMoService] host changes include changed properties [licenseInfo]Mar 26 15:03:06 Vpxa: [2013-03-26 15:03:06.141 179B3B90 verbose ‘VpxProfiler’ opID=HB-host-128@3223-9d] [2-] VpxaMoService::PrepareHostChanges (took 20 ms)Mar 26 15:03:06 Vpxa: [2013-03-26 15:03:06.141 179B3B90 verbose ‘VpxProfiler’ opID=HB-host-

    Does anybody know what program to use to read those files?
    Thanks.

  6. Designing syslog and dump collection process for esxi in 5.1. Planned to use vsphere syslog collector and log insight. Each vCenter instance has separated components for sso, inventory, vum, vcenter, as well as now a central syslog/crashdump collector VM. Plan is to point ESXi servers to send syslogs to central syslog collector and then forward logs from there to log insight. Anyone know of a way to forward logs from vmware syslog collector to vmware log insight?