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Collecting diagnostic information for the vSphere Client or VMware Infrastructure Client

Purpose

VMware Technical Support uses a set of diagnostic information obtained from our products when addressing a support request (SR). This diagnostic information contains product specific logs and configuration files from the host on which the product is run. This information is gathered using a specific script or tool within the product.
 
The collected diagnostic information is then uploaded to VMware Technical Support. To uniquely identify your information, use the SR number you received when you opened your SR.
 
This article provides steps to collect diagnostic information for VMware Virtual Infrastructure from the VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client.

Resolution

Manually collecting logs for the VI Client bundled with VirtualCenter 2.0.x

VirtualCenter does not collect VI Client logs. To manually collect data:
  1. Log in to the machine running the VI Client as the user who encountered the error that prompted the SR.
  2. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Local Settings\Temp\vpx where <User> represents the name of the logged in user.
  3. Compress and archive all of the VI Client log files and send it to Technical Support along with the downloaded logs.

Manually collecting logs for the vSphere Client or VI Client

The vSphere Client and VI Client are bundled with ESX or vCenter Server. These steps work for both vSphere Client and VI Client.
 
vCenter does not collect VI Client logs. To manually collect data:
  1. Log in to the machine running the vSphere Client or VI Client as the user who encountered the error that prompted the SR.
  2. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\VMware\vpx where <User> represents the name of the logged in user.
  3. Compress and archive all of the vSphere Client or VI Client log files and send it to Technical Support along with the downloaded logs.

Downloading diagnostic data from the VI Client

To download diagnostic data from the VI Client:

  1. Log in as an administrator to VirtualCenter with the VI Client, or log in directly to an ESX host as a root user.
  2. Click File > Export > Export Diagnostic Data. The Save Diagnostic Data window appears:



  3. If you logged in as an administrator to VirtualCenter with the VI Client, the Diagnostic Data section appears. In this section:
    1. Select the host(s) for which you want to collect data.
    2. Select Include information from VirtualCenter server if you want to download diagnostic information from the VirtualCenter server.

      Note
      : The Diagnostic Data section does not appear if you are connected directly to an ESX host. Skip to step 4.

  4. To download the diagnostic data to a specified location, c lick Browse and specify a location.
  5. Click OK.

    Note:
    You may receive a Certificate error during the download. This does not mean that the download has failed. Click Ignore to continue.
When the download is complete, the log bundle(s) appear in the folder you specified: 
  • For VirtualCenter, the log is named vc-support-xxxxx.zip, where xxxxx represents the date and time that the log was generated
  • For an ESX host, the log is named <servername>-esxsupport-xxxx.tgz, where <servername> represents the name of the server

Tags

vsphere-collecting-diagnostic-information

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