Installation guide

3 Select View > Filtering to refer to the filtering options.
4 Enter text in the data field.
5 Click Clear to empty the data field.
View System Logs on an ESXi Host
You can use the direct console interface to view the system logs on an ESXi host. These logs provide information
about system operational events.
Procedure
1 From the direct console, select View System Logs.
2 Press a corresponding number key to view a log.
vCenter Server agent (vpxa) logs appear if the host is managed by vCenter Server.
3 Press Enter or the spacebar to scroll through the messages.
4 (Optional) Perform a regular expression search.
a Press the slash key (/).
b Type the text to find.
c Press Enter
The found text is highlighted on the screen.
5 Press q to return to the direct console.
External System Logs
VMware technical support might request several files to help resolve any issues you have with the product.
This section describes the types and locations of log files found on various ESX 4.0 component systems.
NOTE On Windows systems, several log files are stored in the Local Settings directory, which is located at
C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\. This folder is hidden by default.
ESX/ESXi System Logs
You may need the ESX/ESXi system log files to resolve technical issues.
Table 5-15 lists log files associated with ESX systems.
Table 5-15. ESX/ESXi System Logs
Component Location
ESX Server 2.x Service log
/var/log/vmware/vmware-serverd.log
ESX Server 3.x or ESX Service log
/var/log/vmware/hostd.log
vSphere Client Agent log
/var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log
Virtual Machine Kernel Core file
/root/vmkernel-core.<date>
and
/root/vmkernel-log.<date>
These files are present after you reboot your machine.
Syslog log
/var/log/messages
Service Console Availability report
/var/log/vmkernel
VMkernel Messages
/var/log/vmkernel
vSphere Basic System Administration
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