SYSLOG collector in vSphere 6

[vboy]

Is the SYSLOG Collector in vSphere 6 discontinued?

Up to vSphere vCenter Server 5.5 there was an option under vSphere Support Tools to "Install vSphere Syslog Collector".

From the install screen of vSPhere 6 vCenter Server there is not an option to "Install vSphere Syslog Collector".

I know you can redirect the logs from ESXi hosts and vCenter Server to a Syslog host and I know there is a still a Syslog Service, but do you have to install a thrid party Syslog Server now and redirect the logs to that?  The vSphere documentation is not very clear.

regards

[peetz]

Hi vboy,

It is still included. See How vSphere 6.0 Differs from vSphere 5.x:

VMware vSphere Syslog Collector

For vCenter Server 6.0 for Windows, vSphere Syslog Collector is included in the vCenter Server group of services and continues to function exactly as for vCenter Server 5.5.

See also http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2021652

Andreas

[vboy]

Thanks for the very quick reply and references.

In vSphere 5.5 there was an option to install Syslog in the vCenter Server iso.  In vSphere 6 there isn't an option to install Syslog, so how do you install it on another server like you could in vSphere 5.5?

It looks to me like Syslog comes with vCenter Server 6 and it can't be installed anywhere else. You then configure the ESXi hosts to send their logfiles to a datastore configured by the parameter "Syslog.global.logDir" via vCenter Server.

Does that sound correct?

[vin00020]

By default, Syslog service is installed on vCenter 6.x and all the files are saved on respective hosts on /scratch/log

you can forward the syslog to shared data store by this command

esxcli system syslog config set --logdir=/vmfs/volumes/51670632-26a43ec4-ad88-3c4a9276cdf6/scratch/log

# esxcli system syslog config get

makee sure you have "Log To Unique Subdirectory: true" is true. This can be set in "Advanced Settings" of vsphere host.

So...there is not separate install.