Initiate a support bundle transfer request for an object within your environment and attach it to an open Support Request (SR).

Log Assist reduces the effort that is required to upload a support bundle to VMware Global Support Services (GSS). Additionally, VMware Technical Support Engineers (TSE) can initiate a log transfer. This further reduces your effort needed to retrieve information to troubleshoot a problem detailed within a Support Request.

Follow these steps to initiate a log transfer request.

Note:

Skyline Advisor supports the following checks to increase the likelihood of a log transfer request succeeding:

  • Privileges - The account used to add the product to the Skyline Collector has the required privileges for Log Assist. See KB Article 59661 for details. A red error icon will be displayed in the Privileges column if the required product permissions are not applied to the account.

  • Connectivity - Skyline will frequently check with the Skyline Collector to ensure the Skyline Collector can communicate with vCenter Server and ESXi hypervisor hosts over the network. If the Skyline Collector is unable to communicate with either of these objects, you will not be able to proceed with a log transfer request. An informational message will be displayed in this column.

You can validate the required privileges and connnectivity requirements by clicking Re-Validate. After revalidation has completed, click View Details to view the results of the revalidation. If there are any issues with revalidation, the name of the Collector, and the status, are displayed. Use this information to resolve any issues with privileges or connectivity.

Important:

Log Assist does not support the transfer of support bundles from ESXi Hypervisor hosts utilizling Host Encryption Mode.

Important:

Log Assist for selected NSX-T object(s) will delete any support bundles previously created for that object ensuring sufficient storage capacity is available for the new request. This includes support bundles manually created using NSX Manager. If prior log bundles are needed, please download prior to initiating the request.

Prerequisites

To initiate a log transfer for a product, the following requirements must be met:

  • You have added the product to the Skyline Collector.

  • The user account used to add the product to the Skyline Collector has the required privileges applied. See Product User Account Privileges for details.

Procedure

  1. Within Skyline Advisor, click Log Assist.
  2. Click the radio button next to the Support Request for which the support bundle(s) are to be attached to. You can only choose one Support Request.
  3. Locate the object that a support bundle is needed from. Search for the object using the Search by Object Name and hit enter text box or browse for the object using the Inventory tree.
  4. Click the checkbox next to each object that a support bundle is needed. You can select more than one object. Click Next.
  5. Click Initiate Log Transfer.
  6. (Optional) Select advanced configuration option for vCenter, EXSi Hosts, and NSX-T Log Transfer and click Next.

    You can define some advanced configurations to make log uploads based on your your specific issue and help streamline the data that you want to send for resolution rather than sharing everything without any controls or settings.

    For vCenter, select the below customization:

    • Exclude Core Dumps

    For ESXi Hosts, select the below customizations:

    • Exclude Core Dumps

    • Include vCenter Logs with the support bundle

    For NSX-T, select the below customization:

    • Select log age limit

  7. Confirm Initiate Log Transfer.

Results

This log transfer request is sent to the Skyline Collector. A support bundle is generated for the object, or objects, selected during the Initiate Log Transfer process. The Skyline Collector collects and transfers the support bundle to VMware.

What to do next

You can monitor the status of the log transfer request in the Log Library page. When you click the Log Bundle detail, a modal displays all the customizations applied to that specific log bundle. If the log transfer request fails, notify the VMware Technical Support Engineer (TSE) assigned to the Support Request so that they can take the appropriate steps to retrieve the support bundle to assist you with troubleshooting, and resolving the issue you are experiencing.