Configuring the Syslog Service on VMware

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All ESX and ESXi devices run a syslog service (syslogd), which logs messages from the VMkernel and other system components to a file.

To configure the syslog service on an ESX device::

Neither vSphere Client nor vicfg-syslog can be used to configure syslog behavior for an ESX device. To configure syslog for an ESX device, you must edit the /etc/syslog.conf file.

To configure the syslog service on an ESXi device:

On ESXi devices, you can use the vSphere Client or the vSphere CLI command vicfg-syslog to configure the following options:

Log file path: Specifies a datastore path to the file where syslogd logs all messages.
Remote host: Specifies a remote device to which syslog messages are forwarded. In order to receive the forwarded syslog messages, your remote host must have a syslog service installed.
Remote port: Specifies the port used by the remote host to receive syslog messages.

Configuration using vSphere CLI command: For more information on vicfg-syslog, refer the vSphere Command-Line Interface Installation and Reference Guide.

Configuration using vSphere Client:

In the vSphere Client inventory, click on the host.
Click the Configuration tab.
Click Advanced Settings under Software.
Select Syslog in the tree control.
In the Syslog.Local.DatastorePath text box, enter the datastore path to the file where syslog will log messages. If no path is specified, the default path is /var/log/messages.

The datastore path format is [<datastorename>] </path/to/file> where the path is relative to the root of the volume backing the datastore.

Example: The datastore path [storage1] var/log/messages maps to the path / vmfs/volumes/storage1/var/log/messages.

In the Syslog.Remote.Devicename text box, enter the name of the remote host where syslog data will be forwarded. If no value is specified, no data is forwarded.
In the Syslog.Remote.Port text box, enter the port on the remote host where syslog data will be forwarded. By default Syslog.Remote.Port is set to 514, the default UDP port used by syslog. Changes to Syslog.Remote.Port only take effect if Syslog.Remote.Devicename is configured.
Click OK.