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8 Replies Last post: Jun 12, 2008 5:58 AM by Texiwill  

ESX 3.5 Virtual Switch Logs. Do they exist? posted: Jun 11, 2008 11:05 AM

Click to view J_Wood's profile Enthusiast 29 posts since
Mar 27, 2006

I have been asked to provide the logs from the virtual switches on one of my ESX 3.5 hosts. I am not aware of the existence of any such logs. Can anyone confirm this or set me straight?

Thanks!

_____________________________________________________________________
James Wood | Systems Administrator | Arizona Department of Transportation

Re: ESX 3.5 Virtual Switch Logs. Do they exist?

1. Jun 11, 2008 11:22 AM in response to: J_Wood
Click to view weinstein5's profile Guru 6,355 posts since
Nov 19, 2005
What sort ofr information are you looking for? Because with 3.5 the virtual switches now support Ciswco Discovery Protocol -

Re: ESX 3.5 Virtual Switch Logs. Do they exist?

3. Jun 11, 2008 11:34 AM in response to: J_Wood
Click to view gary1012's profile Expert 434 posts since
Feb 20, 2008
I've never seen a transactional log that outlines connections built/torn-down within ESX. It might be best to sniff the network traffic using an analyzer or something like WireShark.

Re: ESX 3.5 Virtual Switch Logs. Do they exist?

4. Jun 11, 2008 11:38 AM in response to: J_Wood
Click to view weinstein5's profile Guru 6,355 posts since
Nov 19, 2005
I do not know the existence of a log for the vswitches - As gary indicated perhaps some sort of network sniffer to monitor traffic - what do the logs on trhe FTP server say? The other thing you might monitor is the network traffic - I am wondering if you are saturating your nic ports - how is the network configured?

Re: ESX 3.5 Virtual Switch Logs. Do they exist?

5. Jun 11, 2008 11:42 AM in response to: weinstein5
Click to view gary1012's profile Expert 434 posts since
Feb 20, 2008
Also, you may have to enable promiscious mode on the vSwitch to perform the sniff.

Re: ESX 3.5 Virtual Switch Logs. Do they exist?

6. Jun 11, 2008 11:49 AM in response to: gary1012
Click to view Texiwill's profile Guru 10,236 posts since
Jan 13, 2004
Hello,

You can also look at the traffic logs on the physical switch involved as well. Is the database inside the virtualization layer?

There are no vSwitch logs similar to what you will find on a pSwitch.


Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education. CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354, As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

Re: ESX 3.5 Virtual Switch Logs. Do they exist?

8. Jun 12, 2008 5:58 AM in response to: J_Wood
Click to view Texiwill's profile Guru 10,236 posts since
Jan 13, 2004
Hello,

Look at the pSwitches directly connected to the VMware ESX hosts. Once a customer had the wrong negotiation settings and these showed a huge number of errors. Also, ensure that for all ports connected to VMware ESX that portfast is enabled otherwise you will have issues if you are using STP (which I would assume is the case). In general, ESX likes to autonegotiate.


Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education. CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354, As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

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