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dks00k
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configure-esxi problems

Hi

I am having a problems with the configure-esxi script.

I have two vCenters, both 5.1.0 Build 947673. One vCenter contains 4 hosts, the other 32 hosts.

The following command worked flawlessly and configured the 4 hosts without error. All 4 hosts are visible in the Log Insight GUI....

configure-esxi -u vimanager -s vmvchomapp05.domain.com.au -t 10.80.9.116

vmlihdp1:~ # configure-esxi -u vimanager -s vmvchomapp05.domain.com.au -q

Password:

Querying remote log settings of hosts on vCenter Server: vmvchomapp05.domain.com.au

NOTE: configure-esxi will work methodically but not quickly. Large inventories

or slow network connections will further slow down execution. Please be patient.

Attempting to connect to vCenter Server vmvchomapp05.domain.com.au

Host: esxhdhsp3.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1021289

Syslog.global.logHost: "10.80.9.116"

Host: esxhdhsp4.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1021289

Syslog.global.logHost: "10.80.9.116"

Host: esxhdhsp10.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 838463

Syslog.global.logHost: "10.80.9.116"

Host: esxhdhsp11.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 838463

Syslog.global.logHost: "10.80.9.116"

However, against the 2nd and larger vCenter, I receive the following.......

configure-esxi -u vimanager -s vmvchomapp03.domain.com.au -t 10.80.9.116

Password:

Configuring hosts connected to vmvchomapp03.domain.com.au to send logs to 10.80.9.116

NOTE: configure-esxi will work methodically but not quickly. Large inventories

or slow network connections will further slow down execution. Please be patient.

Attempting to connect to vCenter Server vmvchomapp03.domain.com.au

Host: esxbohsp1.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

*** WARNING: VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491 has a known issue where if a remote syslog destination becomes

*** unavailable the host will stop sending remote syslog messages until the syslog server is

*** restarted. Please note that tcp/ssl also experience this behavior.

*** See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2003127 for more information.

ERROR: Unsupported <syslog> format

Other things I have noted are:

Querying the vCenter or a host for currently configured setting works fine

Makes no difference if there is a syslog host configured on the host or not. Error persists either way.

The format of <syslog> makes no difference, ipaddress, udp://ipaddress:514, hostname all fail

I note that Configuration > Software >Advanced Settings > Syslog > Syslog.global.loghost in the vSphere Client is blank for the successfully configured hosts. I assume this is normal behaviour. /etc/vmsyslog.conf is correclty configured

I have perused the log files at /var/log/loginsight and see nothing that is useful for my troubleshooting.

Any assistance with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

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sflanders
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1. Yes this is expected behavior. ESXi 5.x support multiple loghost entries and to ensure a user does not accidentally remove old loghost entries configure-esxi requires a separate command to remove a loghost. ESXi 4.x only supports a single loghost and as such configure-esxi comes with the -f flag to override the existing entry. You will notice when using --help that -t will configure a syslog target. This distinction is important as -t can be used for more than just adding a syslog target. For example if you have a loghost 10.10.10.10 configured and then attempt to add tcp://10.10.10.10:1514 then configure-esxi will change 10.10.10.10 to tcp://10.10.10.10:1514 instead of adding a second entry.

2. configure-esxi is provided as a tool for people to use, which is especially helpful for people who do not have existing scripts and do not leverage host profiles. If you have an existing script or host profiles then feel free to use them.

3. I assume you are referring to when configure-esxi detected what it thought was a malformed loghost. Thanks for the feedback, I will ensure it is considered for a future release.

Hope this helps! === If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful". ===

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sflanders
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Can you post an image of Configuration > Software > Advanced Setting > Syslog for esxbohsp1.domain.com.au? Can you also paste the results of running configure-esxi with the -q flag for the vCenter Server that is not working?

Hope this helps! === If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful". ===
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dks00k
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Sure

Thanks for taking a look...

vmlihdp1:~ # configure-esxi -u vimanager -s vmvchomapp03.domain.com.au -q

Password:

Querying remote log settings of hosts on vCenter Server: vmvchomapp03.domain.com.au

NOTE: configure-esxi will work methodically but not quickly. Large inventories

or slow network connections will further slow down execution. Please be patient.

Attempting to connect to vCenter Server vmvchomapp03.domain.com.au

Host: esxbohsp1.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxbohsp2.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxhdhsp30.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

No remote syslog target set on host esxhdhsp30.domain.com.au

Host: esxhdhsp31.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

No remote syslog target set on host esxhdhsp31.domain.com.au

Host: esxudhsp30.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

No remote syslog target set on host esxudhsp30.domain.com.au

Host: esxudhsp31.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

No remote syslog target set on host esxudhsp31.domain.com.au

Host: esxhdhsp1.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.0.0, 914586

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.9.73"

Host: esxhdhsp2.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.0.0, 1024429

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.9.73"

Host: vmhdp1.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESX 3.5.0, 259926

*** WARNING: Skipping host vmhdp1.countryenergy.com.au

*** ESX does not support remote configuration of syslog via an API. Consider upgrading to ESXi.

*** See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1005030 for manual configuration.

Host: vmhdp2.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESX 3.5.0, 259926

*** WARNING: Skipping host vmhdp2.countryenergy.com.au

*** ESX does not support remote configuration of syslog via an API. Consider upgrading to ESXi.

*** See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1005030 for manual configuration.

Host: esxhdhsp5.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.0.0, 914586

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.9.73"

Host: esxhdhsp6.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.0.0, 914586

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.9.73"

Host: esxhdhsp7.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.0.0, 914586

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxhdhsp9.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.0.0, 914586

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.9.73"

Host: esxhdhsp12.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.0.0, 914586

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.9.73"

Host: esxhdhsp14.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.0.0, 914586

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxhdhsp13.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.0.0, 768111

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.9.73"

Host: esxhdhsp8.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.0.0, 1024429

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.9.73"

Host: esxpdhsp2.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxpdhsp1.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxqohsp1.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxqohsp2.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxudhsp6.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxudhsp4.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxudhsp3.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxudhsp1.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxudhsp2.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127"

Host: esxudhsp5.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Syslog.global.logHost: "10.80.9.116"

Host: esxudhsp7.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

No remote syslog target set on host esxudhsp7.domain.com.au

Host: esxudhsp8.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

No remote syslog target set on host esxudhsp8.domain.com.au

Host: vmudp8.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESX 3.5.0, 259926

*** WARNING: Skipping host vmudp8.countryenergy.com.au

*** ESX does not support remote configuration of syslog via an API. Consider upgrading to ESXi.

*** See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1005030 for manual configuration.

Host: vmudp7.countryenergy.com.au, VMware ESX 3.5.0, 259926

*** WARNING: Skipping host vmudp7.countryenergy.com.au

*** ESX does not support remote configuration of syslog via an API. Consider upgrading to ESXi.

*** See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1005030 for manual configuration.

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sflanders
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The issue is that you already have a remote syslog loghost set and it is not in a configure-esxi supported format. Today, the script allows for <IP>, <Hostname>, <FQDN>, or <PROTOCOL>://<IP|Hostname|FQDN>:<PORT>. The issue is the loghost you have set is in the format <PROTOCOL://<IP|Hostname|FQDN> in short, it is missing the :<PORT>. The vSphere documentation does not make it clear that <PROTOCOL://<IP|Hostname|FQDN> is allowed and the configure-esxi script --help states the supported formats. If you try:

configure-esxi -u vimanager -s vmvchomapp03.domain.com.au -t udp://10.80.9.116


you will see that configure-esxi will not allow it. The problem you are experiencing is that configure-esxi needs to validate the existing loghosts on the ESXi server, but the error message does not tell you what loghost is in the wrong format. I will dig into this a bit more and get this addressed in the configure-esxi script. In the meantime, you will need to change your existing loghosts in the format <PROTOCOL>://<IP|Hostname|FQDN>  to one of the supported formats for configure-esxi to work.

Hope this helps! === If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful". ===
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dks00k
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Thanks for that

I can confirm that appending the port number to the loghost entry resolves the issue. However it raises several other questions....

1.  The new loghost is added to rather than replacing the existing entry requiring . Is this to be the expected behaviour? I'd prefer to see an option to remove all existing and replace with the new.

vmlihdp1:~ # configure-esxi -u vimanager -s vmvchomapp03.domain.com.au -t 10.80.9.116 -h esxudhsp1.domain.com.au

Configuring hosts connected to vmvchomapp03.domain.com.au to send logs to 10.80.9.116

Host: esxudhsp1.domain.com.au, VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491

Old Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127:514"

New Syslog.global.logHost: "udp://10.80.8.127:514,10.80.9.116"

Changes successful.

2.  Is the configure-esxi script essential or can we continue to utilise Host Profiles?

3.  When adding all hosts connected to a vCenter, i'd like to see the script continue when it encounters a problem host rather than halting.

Cheers

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sflanders
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1. Yes this is expected behavior. ESXi 5.x support multiple loghost entries and to ensure a user does not accidentally remove old loghost entries configure-esxi requires a separate command to remove a loghost. ESXi 4.x only supports a single loghost and as such configure-esxi comes with the -f flag to override the existing entry. You will notice when using --help that -t will configure a syslog target. This distinction is important as -t can be used for more than just adding a syslog target. For example if you have a loghost 10.10.10.10 configured and then attempt to add tcp://10.10.10.10:1514 then configure-esxi will change 10.10.10.10 to tcp://10.10.10.10:1514 instead of adding a second entry.

2. configure-esxi is provided as a tool for people to use, which is especially helpful for people who do not have existing scripts and do not leverage host profiles. If you have an existing script or host profiles then feel free to use them.

3. I assume you are referring to when configure-esxi detected what it thought was a malformed loghost. Thanks for the feedback, I will ensure it is considered for a future release.

Hope this helps! === If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful". ===
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dks00k
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Great

Thanks very much for that

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