Unable to update syslog host name on ESXi5 host machine

[GaryK4U]

Hello All,

I am unable to update the SysLog host name via the following method on one particular ESXi 5 host machine:

From vSphere Client version 5.0.0, go to Configuration -> Software - Advanced Settings -> Expand 'Syslog' and select 'Global', enter host name such as udp://server-name:514, and hit OK. When I do, vSphere Client thinks for about a minute and I get the following error message:

Call "OptionManager.UpdateValues" for object "EsxHostAdvSettings-54" on vCenter Server "server-name" failed.

From the client recent tasks information, I get:

Update option values, 172.22.216.6, A general system error occurred: Internal error Administrator "server-name"
11/29/2011 1:04:50 PM
11/29/2011 1:04:50 PM
11/29/2011 1:05:31 PM

Please note I have updated the FQDN of the server with "server-name" above. I am using the SysLog collector which comes with the ESXi install media.

I have done this on 30+ other host machines in the same datacenter, all servers are new/default installations. I have not been able to discover any difference with this host vs. the 30+ other host machines which have no issues. There are no virtual machines on this host machine yet. I have already rebooted the host machine as well, and restarted vSphere client multiple times. The only thing I have not done is reboot the vCenter Server, which I will do eventually. Again, though, it works on 30+ other host machines without issue.

Any ideas? What else can I give you to help discover the root cause and ultimately a fix?

Thanks!

Gary

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Do you get an error if you try to configure any other of the advanced settings?

[GaryK4U]

Hi Dave,

I do not receive an error when making other advanced settings changes on this host.

For example, on the same page, I change the "Syslog.global.defaultRotate" from 8 to 12, click ok, saves without issue. So, it would seem to only be the "Syslog.global.logHost" option for this one particular host which is giving me a problem.

Any ideas on where I could look to get more information on what may be the root cause of the issue?

Thanks,

Gary

[20thCB]

Try entering the hostname as just the fqdn without the "udp" and port. I had a similar issue until I did this.

[abbie11]

Hello gary ,

please share the syslog txt file from below mentioned path

c:\documentsetting\alluser\applicationdata\vmware\vmwaresyslog collector .

Yours, Abbie

[GaryK4U]

Hi 20thCB,

Unfortunately, this did not work either. It resulted in the same error message.

Thanks for trying though,

Gary

[GaryK4U]

Hi abbie11,

Are you looking for the vmconfig-syslog.xlm file?

My SysLog Collector is installed on my vCenter Server, and is installed here:

c:\ProgramData\VMWare\VMWare Syslog Collector\

Please also again, keep in mind, there are 30+ other host machines configured the exact same way as this one, which are not having an issue. I am tempted to just re-install ESXi 5 on this particular host, but would like to found out why this one is having this particular issue.

Thanks,

Gary

[GaryK4U]

Hello again everyone,

I completely re-installed ESXi 5 on this particular blade, reconfigured the network, removed the old server, added it back via vSphere client, and I am still unable to change any advanced settings.

Now, I get the following error message:

Call "OptionManager.UpdateValues" for object "EsxHostAdvSettings-139" on vCenter Server "fqdn_for_vcenter_server" failed.

Any ideas on what this could be? What else can I give you to help determine the root cause?

Thanks in advance,

Gary

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Have you tried connecting directly to the host  with the vSphere client?

[GaryK4U]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the reply.

I did connect directly to 1 of now 2 problem host machines via vSphere Client v5.

Received the following error when trying to make the change:

Call "OptionManager.UpdateValues" for object "ha-adv-options" on ESXi "ip.ad.dr.es" failed.

Quick update:

Have 2 host machines exhibiting the same problem. Cannot update syslog server address. I have 30+ other host machines all configured similarly without issue. These 2 host machines have no VMs on them, and don't seem to have issues updating other advanced settings. I completely reinstalled ESXi 5 on one of them, and it still had issues.

Any other ideas on where to go from here?

Thanks,

Gary

[dmancole]

Gary, I am having the same problems.

From VMA, ssh into the host with the problems and try running the command:

esxcli system syslog config set --loghost=remotehost

remotehost doesn't need quotes.

I ran this and entered the FQDN of my syslog server and got an error 'unable to resolve'.  So I entered the IP address and it worked.  Now I'm trying to figure out why the FQDN doesn't resolve as it resolves from everywhere else..

Let me know.

[GaryK4U]

Hello all/Dmancole,

I am embarrased to say I was able to find a DNS/routing issue with the 2 hosts in question. Once I corrected this, I was able to enter the server name into the syslog field and all is well.

I would recommend to anyone having the same or similar issue to check your networking settings and confirm all is well there.

Thank you again to everyone who offered up suggestions.

Gary

[USPTO]

FYI, we ran into this issue.  It was discovered the DNS client was disabled.  The issue went away once we enabled it.