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Log Rotation and Logging Options for vmware.log

Details

What configurable options are available for a virtual machine's vmware.log?
 

Solution

There are four options you can use to change virtual machine logging and log rotation behaviors:
 
logging
log.rotateSize
log.keepOld
log.fileName
 

logging

The logging option allows you to turn logging on or off.
  • To turn logging off, enter logging="false" in the virtual machine's .vmx file.
  • To turn logging back on, change logging="false" to logging="true".

log.rotateSize

By default, the virtual machine log file ( vmware.log) is rotated as a result of the virtual machine's Power On or Power Off operation.
 
To configure log rotation based on file size, include the following option in the .vmx file of the virtual machine:
log.rotateSize=<maximum size in bytes the file can grow to>

The following example specifies the vmware.log file to be rotated when its size reaches 100 kilobytes:
log.rotateSize=100000

log.keepOld

By default, ESX Server 3.0 keeps six rotations of the vmware.log file ( vmware.log, vmware-1.log, vmware-2.log... ).
 
To change the level of rotation, use the log.keepOld option.
 
The following example specifies the level of rotation to be 10:
log.keepOld=10

log.fileName

To specify an alternative location or filename for virtual machine logging, use the log.fileName option.

The following example specifies "myVMlog" as the new file for logs instead of the default "vmware.log":
log.fileName="myVMlog"

The next example directs logs to be written to an alternate directory called "myVM" in a different VMFS volume, "vol1":
log.fileName="/vmfs/volumes/vol1/myVM/myVM.log"

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  • KB Article: 8182749
  • Updated: Aug 14, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware ESX
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ESX 3.0.x