Location of vCenter Single Sign-On log files for vCenter Server 5.1 and 5.5

Products

VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the default location of Single Sign-On (SSO) log files. It may be necessary to use these log files when troubleshooting issues and VMware Support may request these files when creating a Support Request.

For vCenter Server 6.0, see Location of VMware vCenter Server 6.0 log files (2110014).

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x

Resolution

The SSO logs are placed in a different directory on disk depending on the vSphere version and the deployed platform:

vSphere 5.1 using vCenter Single Sign-On 5.1:

vCenter Server 5.1.x on Windows Server 2003 – C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer\logs\
vCenter Server 5.1.x on Windows Server 2008/2012 – C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer\logs\
vCenter Server Virtual Appliance 5.1.x – /var/log/vmware/sso/

vSphere 5.5 using vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5:

vCenter Server 5.5.x on 2003 – %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\CIS\
vCenter Server 5.5.x and 2008, 2012 – C:\ProgramData\VMware\CIS\
vCenter Server Virtual Appliance 5.5.x – /var/log/vmware/sso/

Note: If the service is running under a specific user, the logs may be located in the profile directory of that user instead of %ALLUSERSPROFILE%.

vCenter Single Sign-On 5.1.0

The SSO installation logs are located in the Temp folder of the user that installed the service and can be found by using the %TEMP% environment variable in Windows Explorer.

The log files provided by SSO includes:

vminst.log – SSO installer log
vm_vim_ls.log – SSO Lookup Service log
vim-sso-msi.log – MSI installer for SSO installation log - verbose
vim-sso-javalib.log – SSO database operations
Identity Source Active Directory information is only available in the VMware vCenter Server Appliance at /var/log/vmware/vpx/sso_cfg.log.

SSO logs grouped by component and purpose include:

catalina.date.log – Standard Tomcat logs
imsTrace.log and imsSystem.log – RSA’s Castle logs
ssoAdminServer.log – SSO admin server
lookupServer.log – Lookup server log
replicationTransport.log – Replication

You can find the database configuration information at:

C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer\webapps\ims\web-inf\classes\jndi.properties
C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer\webapps\lookupservice\WEB-INF\classes\config.properties

The Single Sign-On Command Line Interface log is located at C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer\utils\logs.v.

vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5.0

The SSO installation logs are located in the Temp folder of the user that installed the service and can be found by using the %TEMP% environment variable in Windows Explorer.

The log files provided by SSO include:

vminst.log – SSO installer log
vim-sso-msi.log – MSI installer verbose logs for SSO installation
vim_ssoreg.log – SSO Service log
exported_sso.properties – Endpoint information about each of the SSO Solution Users and identity sources extracted from previous vCenter Single Sign On 5.1.0 instance
vim-openssl-msi.log – MSI installer verbose log for OpenSSL installation
vim-python-msi.log – MSI installer verbose log for Python installation
vim-kfw-msi.log – MSI installer verbose log for MIT Kerberos installation

SSO logs grouped by component and purpose include:

logs\vmdird\vdcpromo.log – Promotion and demotion operation information for the SSO instance when joined or removed from a linked configurations
logs\vmdird\vdcsetupIdu.log – VMware Directory Service setup post-installation log containing information about the localhost name
logs\vmdird\vmdir.log – Health reports for the VMware Directory Service (VMDir) service and the VMDir database
logs\vmkdcd\vmkdcd.log – Key Distribution Center (kdc) run-time log, reports ports conflicts preventing the service from starting
logs\vmware-sso\vmware-sts-idmd.log – VMware Identity Management service run-time logs, time-stamped records of user attempts when accessing SSO for administrative purposes
logs\vmware-sso\vmware-sts.ldmd-perf.log – VMware Identity Management service performance counter logs
logs\vmware-sso\VMwareIdentityMgmtService. date.log – Commons Daemon log once the Identity Management Service has started
runtime\VMwareSTS\logs\ssoAdminserver.log – SSO admin server
runtime\VMwareSTS\logs\lookupServer.log – Lookup server log
runtime\VMwareSTS\logs\catalina. date.log – Standard Tomcat logs
runtime\VMwareSTS\logs\vmware-identity-sts.log – VMware Security Token Service service run-time logs, time-stamped records of issuing, validating, and renewal of security tokens.
runtime\VMwareSTS\logs\vmware-identity-sts-perf.log – VMware Security Token Service performance counter logs.

To gather a SSO support bundle for vSphere 5.1 and vSphere 5.5, click Start > All Programs > VMware > Generate vCenter Single Sign-On log bundle. This creates a folder on the server desktop.

Additional Information

For related information, see the main article in this series Location of log files for VMware products (1021806).

For more troubleshooting information, see:

Location of log files for VMware products
Troubleshooting Single Sign On (SSO) issues in vCenter Server 5.1
Troubleshooting the configuration of vCenter Single Sign On within the vCenter Server 5.1 Appliance
vCenter Server 5.1 および 5.5 の vCenter Single Sign-On ログファイルの場所
vCenter Server 5.1 和 5.5 的 vCenter Single Sign-On 日志文件的位置
Location of VMware vCenter Server 6.0 log files