NSX-T Data Center components write to log files in the directory /var/log. On NSX-T appliances and KVM hosts, NSX syslog messages conform with RFC 5424. On ESXi hosts, syslog messages conform with RFC 3164.
Viewing Logs
On NSX-T appliances syslog messages are in /var/log/syslog. On KVM hosts, syslog messages are in /var/log/vmware/nsx-syslog.
get log-file <auth.log | controller | controller-error | http.log | kern.log | manager.log | node-mgmt.log | syslog> [follow]
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| auth.log | Authorization log |
| controller | Controller log |
| controller-error | Controller error log |
| http.log | HTTP service log |
| kern.log | Kernel log |
| manager.log | Manager service log |
| node-mgmt.log | Node management log |
| nsx-audit-write.log | NSX audit write log |
| nsx-audit.log | NSX audit log |
| syslog | System log |
On hypervisors, you can use Linux commands such as tac, tail, grep, and more to view the logs.
Each syslog message has the component (comp) and sub-component (subcomp) information to help identify the source of the message.
NSX-T Data Center produces logs with facility local6, which has a numerical value of 22.
The audit log is part of syslog. An audit log message can be identified by the string audit="true" in the structured-data field. You can configure an external log server to receive log messages. You can also access audit logs using the API /api/v1/administration/audit-logs. The file nsx-audit.log contains syslog messages with audit="true" in the structured-data field. The file nsx-audit-write.log contains syslog messages with both audit="true" and update="true" in the structured-data field.
<182>1 2020-05-05T00:29:02.900Z nsx-manager1 NSX 14389 - [nsx@6876 audit="true" comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" reqId="fe75651d-c3e7-4680-8753-9ae9d92d7f0c" subcomp="policy" username="admin"] UserName="admin", ModuleName="AAA", Operation="GetCurrentUserInfo", Operation status="success"
- An entity ID parameter entId to identify the object of the API.
- A request ID parameter req-id to identify a specific API call.
- An external request ID parameter ereqId if the API call contains the header X-NSX-EREQID:<string>.
- An external user parameter euser if the API call contains the header X-NSX-EUSER:<string>.
- An update flag that shows whether the API operation is a read (GET) or write (PUT/POST/DELETE/...) operation.
- An operation name field that shows the name of the API operation.
- An operation status field that shows whether the API operation succeeded or failed.
- A new value field that shows all parameter values of the API request.
NSX-T does not have the concept of a privileged mode. API calls from all sources and users are audited.
2020-07-07T16:33:20.339Z svc.nsxmanager NSX 1513 SYSTEM [nsx@6876 audit="true" comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" subcomp="http"] UserName="[email protected]", ModuleName="ACCESS_CONTROL", Operation="LOGIN", Operation status="success" 2020-07-07T16:33:58.779Z svc.nsxmanager NSX 1513 SYSTEM [nsx@6876 audit="true" comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" subcomp="http"] UserName="admin", ModuleName="ACCESS_CONTROL", Operation="LOGOUT", Operation status="success" 2020-07-07T16:50:21.301Z svc.nsxmanager NSX 1513 SYSTEM [nsx@6876 audit="true" comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" subcomp="http"] UserName="[email protected]", ModuleName="ACCESS_CONTROL", Operation="LOGIN", Operation status="success" 2020-07-07T16:43:20.339Z svc.nsxmanager NSX 1513 SYSTEM [nsx@6876 audit="true" comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" subcomp="http"] UserName="[email protected]", ModuleName="ACCESS_CONTROL", Operation="LOGIN", Operation status="failure"
<182>1 2020-07-06T18:09:14.210Z svc.nsxmanager NSX 2326 FABRIC [nsx@6876 audit="true" comp="nsx-manager" entId="68d5a9d0-4691-4c9c-94ed-64fd1c96150f" level="INFO" reqId="4c2335aa-c973-4f74-983f-331a4f7041ca" subcomp="manager" update="true" username="admin"] UserName="admin", ModuleName="TransportZone", Operation="CreateTransportZone", Operation status="success", New value=[{"transport_type":"OVERLAY","host_switch_name":"nsxvswitch","host_switch_mode":"STANDARD","nested_nsx":false,"is_default":false,"display_name":"1-transportzone-1307","_protection":"UNKNOWN"}]
2020-07-07T16:36:41.783Z svc.nsxmanager NSX 21018 - [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" subcomp="cli" username="admin" level="INFO"] NSX CLI started (Manager, Policy, Controller) for user: admin 2020-07-07T16:36:53.469Z svc.nsxmanager NSX 21018 - [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" subcomp="cli" username="admin" level="INFO"] NSX CLI stopped for user: admin
<182>1 2020-07-22T20:51:49.017Z manager2 NSX 1864 - [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" subcomp="cli" username="admin" level="INFO" audit="true"] CMD: set user admin password-expiration 100 (duration: 2.185s), Operation status: CMD_EXECUTED
<182>1 2020-07-21T21:01:38.803Z manager2 NSX 4690 - [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" subcomp="node-mgmt" username="admin" level="INFO" audit="true"] admin 'GET /api/v1/node/services/syslog/exporters' 200 731 "" "PostmanRuntime/7.26.1" 0.004588
<182>1 2020-07-21T20:54:40.018Z manager2 NSX 16915 - [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" subcomp="cli" username="admin" level="INFO" audit="true"] CMD: set logging-server 1.1.1.1 proto udp level info (duration: 4.356s), Operation status: CMD_EXECUTED
RFC 5424 and RFC 3164 define the following severity levels:
| Severity Level | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Emergency: system is unusable |
| 1 | Alert: action must be taken immediately |
| 2 | Critical: critical conditions |
| 3 | Error: error conditions |
| 4 | Warning: warning conditions |
| 5 | Notice: normal but significant condition |
| 6 | Informational: informational messages |
| 7 | Debug: debug-level messages |
All logs with a severity of emergency, alert, critical, or error contain a unique error code in the structured data portion of the log message. The error code consists of a string and a decimal number. The string represents a specific module.
Failure to Access a Log File or Remote Log Server
If NSX-T fails to access or write messages to a log file, an alarm will be generated. The possible errors are:
- A local log file is missing.
- A local log file's permission or ownership setting prevents NSX-T from writing to the file.
- NSX-T is unable to send log messages to a third-party remote log server. Note that an alarm will not be raised if NSX-T fails to send logs to the Log Insight agent.
The alarm can be resolved through the alarm framework.
Log Message Formats
For more information about RFC 5424, see https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5424. For more information about RFC 3164, see https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3164.
RFC 5424 defines the following format for log messages:
<facility * 8 + severity> version UTC-TZ hostname APP-NAME procid MSGID [structured-data] msg
<187>1 2016-03-15T22:53:00.114Z nsx-manager NSX - SYSTEM [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" errorCode="MP4039" subcomp="manager"] Connection verification failed for broker '10.160.108.196'. Marking broker unhealthy.
Error Codes
For a list of error codes, see the knowledge base article 71077 NSX-T Data Center 2.x Error Codes.
