Extracting ESXi log using powershell

[AlbertWT]

Hi All,

I'd like to know if it is possible to get or pull the ESXi host information using PowerCLI 4.0 for ESXi 4.0 ?

eg. to get the ESXi log about RAID hard disk failure ? rather than having to ssh UNSUPPORTED to the The VMkernel, vmkwarning, and hostd logs at /var/log/messages

like in: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=102180...

Kind Regards,

AWT

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You can use Get-Log. You can also pipe to Select-String to filter the output.

Get-Log messages | select -ExpandProperty Entries

Get-Log hostd | select -ExpandProperty Entries

Get-Log vpxa | select -ExpandProperty Entries

Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

Now available - vSphere Quick Start Guide

Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL.

[AlbertWT]

Thanks for the reply Dave,

here's what I've got:

Connect-VIServer -Server 'vCenter'

Get-Log messages | select -ExpandProperty Entries

Get-Log hostd | select -ExpandProperty Entries

Get-Log vpxa | select -ExpandProperty Entries

it stopped with Error:

7/09/2010 7:07:26 PM Get-Log 4651586F-4369-43DE-B54E-50F9ACEAC997 Log with key 'messages' not found.

At :line:3 char:7

+ Get-Log <<<< messages | select -ExpandProperty Entries

7/09/2010 7:07:26 PM Get-Log 4651586F-4369-43DE-B54E-50F9ACEAC997 Log with key 'hostd' not found.

At :line:4 char:7

+ Get-Log <<<< hostd | select -ExpandProperty Entries

7/09/2010 7:07:27 PM Get-Log 4651586F-4369-43DE-B54E-50F9ACEAC997 Log with key 'vpxa' not found.

At :line:5 char:7

+ Get-Log <<<< vpxa | select -ExpandProperty Entries

is itbecause i'm using ESXi 4.0

Kind Regards,

AWT

[LucD]

To get the ESX logs you have to connect to the ESX server instead of the vCenter.

____________

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Twitter: lucd22

[AlbertWT]

thanks Luc, is this script work for the ESXi ? as i don't have ESX installed on my production environment.

[admin]

It should work for ESXi as well.

You might want to consider configuring your ESXi boxes to a log to a central syslog server. If you want something supported by VMware, you might want to consider the vMA appliance.

Thanks,

Sia

[AlbertWT]

ok, thanks foryour reply

to log the entry to syslog can ESXi do that ?

and regarding the vMA, does it pulls all of the log or it does act as the syslog for all of our ESXi server ?

[Dave_Mishchenko · Accepted solution]

The commands do work with ESXi. You can configure ESXi to send logs to a syslog receiver under advanced settings. ESXi can also copy the log files to a datastore locations.

With the vMA the vi-logger component is configured to pull log file from ESXi (and vCenter as well).




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

Now available - vSphere Quick Start Guide

Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL.