Log files location

[Slawo]

Hello, I have a quite small but fast HDD where i would like to have all the log files written into. How can I change the location of the log files? Is there any configuration option?

Is there a manual describing all the configuration files?

[DannyD]

You will find the Fusion application logs at /Users/Username/Library/Logs/VMware Fusion

You will find the virtual machine specific logs in the home folder of your virtual machines.

Replace Username with your username

[rcardona2k · Accepted solution]

>How can I change the location of the log files? Is there any configuration option?

The Fusion VMM seems to accept log.filename="/tmp/vmware.log". Substitute the path for your desired location.

>Is there a manual describing all the configuration files?

None, provided by VMware. The un-official reference for the configuration file format is Ulli's site (sanbarrow.com)

I'll have to look in user preferences for re-directing the GUI's log file. I'm not sure about that one.

[Slawo]

This I already know, the title of my question must have mislead you.

The question is how can I redirect the logs of VMWare and the logs of each virtual appliance into a more efficient disk? The large drive I use for the Virtual machines is quite slow while my faster drive is quite full and is not large enough for the whole virtual appliances.

[Slawo]

>How can I change the location of the log files? Is

there any configuration option?

The Fusion VMM seems to accept

log.filename="/tmp/vmware.log". Substitute the path

for your desired location.

which file should I edit to change this value?

>Is there a manual describing all the configuration

files?

None, provided by VMware. The un-official reference

for the configuration file format is Ulli's site

(sanbarrow.com)

I'll have to look in user preferences for

re-directing the GUI's log file. I'm not sure about

that one.

Thank you much

[RDPetruska]

... and Richard already answered you. Add the line

log.filename="/tmp/vmware.log"

to your vmx file. Substitute the path for your desired location.

[KevinG]

This only changes the location of the virtual machine log file and not the UI log files

[Slawo]

Is there a way to change the UI log files location?

[arang]

The UI log files drop into ~/Library/Logs/VMWare Fusion.

You could probably remove this directory and make a symbolic link to another location. (I don't think a Finder alias would work, though I haven’t tested it yet; many applications don’t properly handle them.)

% rm -r '~/Library/Logs/VMWare Fusion'

% ln -s 'somewhere' '~/Library/Logs/VMWare Fusion'

That said, there’s not a lot of data going into the logs (or shouldn't be, once debugging mode is off in the release so it’s probably not a big deal to leave them in the default location. I have two VMs up for 5 days or so now and the UI log files total less than 150KB.

[Slawo]

Thank you much, simply moving the log file of the virtual appliances changes everything, I was worried the sluggish behavior was due to Fusion or my config of Mac OS...

Perfect!

[Slawo]

Indeed arang the alias was not working, with the ln -s it's working.

Thanks much rcardona2k for the tip and RDPetruska for the precision.

[admin]

Thank you much, simply moving the log file of the

virtual appliances changes everything, I was worried

the sluggish behavior was due to Fusion or my config

of Mac OS...

Perfect!

That's kind of surprising. Unless you've enabled some non-default debug logging options, neither the VMX nor UI logs should be growing so fast that your disk becomes a bottleneck. By default you should only be seeing initialization and warning messages in those logs, as well as periodic performance stats.

[Slawo]

Considering the kb size of the logs it makes no sense to me either, but I don't have time for further testing this month.

Anyway, putting the logs onto a virtual disk (in RAM) helped a lot on my macbook.

Thanks much for the help.