You can collect installation or upgrade log files for vCenter Server. If an installation or upgrade fails, checking the log files can help you identify the source of the failure.

You can also collect deployment log files for vCenter Server.

Retrieve Installation Logs Manually

You can retrieve the installation log files manually for examination.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the installation log file locations.
    • %PROGRAMDATA%\VMware\vCenterServer\logs directory, usually C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\logs
    • %TEMP% directory, usually C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp
    The files in the %TEMP% directory include vc-install.txt, vminst.log, pkgmgr.log, pkgmgr-comp-msi.log, and vim-vcs-msi.log.
    Note:
    • In Linux, the installation logs are in /tmp/vcsaUiInstaller
    • In MacOS, the installation logs are in /var/folders/**/vcsaUiInstaller

      The installer randomly picks a temporary folder to place the log files. Locate the vcsaUiInstaller folder within /var/folders/ for the log files.

  2. Open the installation log files in a text editor for examination.

Collect Deployment Log Files for the vCenter Server Appliance

If the vCenter Server appliance deployment fails, you can retrieve the log files and examine them for the reason of the failure.

The full path to the log files is displayed in the vCenter Server appliance deployment wizard.

In case of firstboot failure, you can download the support bundle on a Windows host machine and examine the log files to determine which firstboot script failed. See Export a vCenter Server Support Bundle for Troubleshooting.

Procedure

  1. On the Windows machine that you use for deploying the vCenter Server appliance, navigate to the log files folder.
    You must have administrator privilege to access the log files and the log files are available at:
    • Windows: C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Local\Temp\vcsaUiInstaller
    • Linux: /tmp/vcsaUiInstaller
    • Mac : /var/folders/**/**/**/vcsaUiInstaller
  2. Open the installation log files in a text editor for examination.

Export a vCenter Server Support Bundle for Troubleshooting

You can export the support bundle of the vCenter Server instance in the appliance for troubleshooting using the URL displayed on the DCUI home screen.

You can also collect the support bundle from the vCenter Server appliance Bash shell by running the vc-support.sh script.

The support bundle is exported in .tgz format.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the Windows host machine on which you want to download the bundle.
  2. Open a Web browser and enter the URL to the support bundle displayed in the DCUI.
    https:// appliance-fully-qualified-domain-name:443/appliance/support-bundle
  3. Enter the user name and password of the root user.
  4. Click Enter.
    The support bundle is downloaded as .tgz file on your Windows machine.
  5. (Optional) To determine which firstboot script failed, examine the firstbootStatus.json file.
    If you ran the vc-support.sh script in the vCenter Server appliance Bash shell, to examine the firstbootStatus.json file, run 
    cat /var/log/firstboot/firstbootStatus.json