You can often obtain valuable troubleshooting information by looking at the logs provided by the various services and agents that your implementation is using.

Most logs are located in /var/log/ for vCenter Server deployments.

Common Logs

The following logs are common to all vCenter Server deployments.

Table 1. Common Log Directories
Log Directory Description
vmware/applmgmt VMware Appliance Management Service
cloudvm Logs for allotment and distribution of resources between services
firstboot Location where first boot logs are stored
rhttpproxy Reverse Web Proxy
sca VMware Service Control Agent
vmware/applmgmt VMware Appliance Monitoring Service
vapi VMware vAPI Endpoint
vmafdd VMware Authentication Framework daemon
vmdird VMware Directory Service daemon
vmon VMware Service Lifecycle Manager

Management Node Logs

The following logs are available if a management node deployment is selected.

Table 2. Management Node Log Directories
Log Directory Description
vmware/rbd VMware vSphere Auto Deploy Waiter
content-library VMware Content Library Service
eam VMware ESX Agent Manager
netdumper VMware vSphere ESXi Dump Collector
perfcharts VMware Performance Charts
vmcam VMware vSphere Authentication Proxy
vmdird VMware Directory Service daemon
vmware-sps VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage Service
vpxd VMware VirtualCenter Server
vpostgres vFabric Postgres database service
vcha VMware High Availability Service