Using the VCF Diagnostic Tool for vSphere (VDT)
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Using the VCF Diagnostic Tool for vSphere (VDT)

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Article ID: 344917

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

VCF Diagnostic Tool for vSphere (formerly vSphere Diagnostic Tool) is a multi product diagnostic tool that can be run directly on a vCenter Server appliance. It executes a series of checks on the system configuration and reports user-friendly PASS/FAIL/WARN results for known configuration issues. It also provides information (INFO) messages from certain areas which we hope will make detecting inconsistencies easier. The goal of these tests is to provide information to the user that is hard to gather or otherwise not obvious when troubleshooting an issue.

For details on VDT for SDDC Manager, see VCF Diagnostic Tool for SDDC Manager
 


Environment

VMware vCenter Server 6.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.7.x

Resolution

Download and Install


VDT 2 is now available!
VDT 2 has been rewritten from the ground up to evolve from a simple collection of python scripts to a python based health reporting framework.  This new version provides libraries that standardize the output and format of each check.  This means that compatibility for additional products is coming soon!

Release Support:

  • vdt 1.1.4 - vCenter Server 6.5, 6.7, and 7.0
  • vdt 1.1.6 - vCenter Server 7.0 and 8.0
  • vdt 2.0.x - vCenter Server 7.0 and 8.0
  1. Download the version of VDT compatible with your vCenter version that's attached to this article (see above).
  2. Use the file-moving utility of your choice (WinSCP for example) to copy the entire ZIP directory to /root on the node on which you wish to run it.

Note: If you have troubles connecting to a vCenter appliance using WinSCP, please see Error when uploading files to vCenter Server Appliance using WinSCP

  1. Change your directory to the location of the file, and unpack the zip: 
    cd /root/
unzip vdt-version_number.zip
  2. Run the tool with the command: 
    python vdt.py

    You will be prompted for the password for [email protected]. Many checks will still run even if credentials are not supplied.

    The tool will then proceed to run.  You can review the output by scrolling up and down in the window.  Each test should be self-explanatory in its meaning, findings, and directions. If any check isn’t clear in its direction, or a false positive is suspected, please report the issue to our team at [email protected] and we will address it.
 

Current Checks

 - vCenter Basic Info
 - SSO Checks (Lookup Service and Machine ID)
 - Active Directory Integration
 - vCenter Certificates
 - VMdir Functionality
 - Core Files
 - vPostgres Database Usage
 - Disk Space Usage
 - DNS Functionality
 - Time Sync & NTP Functionality
 - Root Account Validity
 - vCenter Services
 - VCHA Check
 - Syslog Functionality
 - IWA/AD Checks
 - Local Identity Source Check
 - Solution User Checks
 


Troubleshooting

VDT 2.x
  1. Tests are timing out or taking too long:
As of version 2, a built in 10 second timer (configurable in vdt/vcenter/vc_cfg/vc_vdt.ini)  activates and asks if you want to force the checks to keep going or skip it. If a forced test continues to hang, see the instructions in scenario 2.
 
  1. A test hangs or causes issues preventing script execution:
If a test hangs for an unreasonable amount of time or fails preventing execution of further tests, you can ctrl-c out of the script, then disable the check in the "vcenter/vc_cfg/vc_vdt.ini" file. For example, to disable the IWA/AD checks:
  1. From the VDT 2 directory, modify the vc_vdt.ini file:
vi ./vcenter/vc_cfg/vc_vdt.ini
  1. Find the following lines:
[category:vc_iwa_checks]
name = "IWA/AD Checks"
  1. Place a semi-colon before each line:
;[category:vc_iwa_checks]
;name = "IWA/AD Checks"
  1. Save the file:
:wq!
  1. One or more tests throw backtraces or python errors
    1. Collect a log bundle
    2. Proceed with traditional troubleshooting
    3. Report the issue to [email protected]
  2. You encounter inaccurate or strange results for any check
    1. Proceed with traditional troubleshooting
    2. Report the issue to [email protected]


VDT 1.x
  1. Tests are timing out or taking too long
    1. As of 1.1.6, a built in 20 second timer activates and asks if you want to force the checks to keep going or skip it. If a forced test continues to hang, see the instructions in scenario 2
  2. A test hangs for more than 10 seconds in earlier versions of VDT
    1. If a test hangs for an unreasonable amount of time, you can ctrl-c out of the script, then move the test it was running out of the ‘scripts’ directory.  For example:
mv scripts/vc_ad_check.py /tmp/
  1. One or more tests throw backtraces or python errors
    1. Collect a log bundle
    2. Proceed with traditional troubleshooting
    3. Report the issue to [email protected]
  2. You encounter inaccurate or strange results for any check
    1. Proceed with traditional troubleshooting
    2. Report the issue to [email protected]

Additional Information

vSphere Diagnostic Tool does not make any changes to the environment (other than adding it’s output to log bundles), and is a read-only set of scripts.  There are no passwords recorded in the logs, and all code is non-compiled for easy review.

Attachments

vdt-v2.0.4-03_08_2024 get_app
vdt-v1.1.4 get_app
vdt-v1.1.6 get_app
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