VMA as my log collector...

[kopper27]

VMA 4.1 as my log collector

hi guys

since I usually work for small business companies I usually install 2-3 ESXi hosts
my questions are:
1. is it really needed VMA as my log collector in such small enviroments? or no matter the size of your cluster you shoul have alog collector.
2. if having VMA for logging is a must how should I handle this VM with DRS eanbled o disabled?

thanks a lot

[William Lam]

1) No, vMA is not needed as your definitive syslog, it's just something that VMware provides out of the box with vMA. You can run any type of syslog server or use an existing one. Though I agree that you definitely want to set one up whether that is uing vMA or your own syslog server

2) DRS has no impact on this, syslog is sent from an ESX(i) host to your syslog server.

Note, that ESXi only supports a single syslog server, so if your syslog server goes down, you won't be receiving the remote logs but they'll still persist locally until a reboot.

[vmroyale]

Hello.

I think it is always a good idea to configure ESXi to store the logs locally and off to a syslog server as well, no matter the size of the environment.  The key thing is to make sure you configure at least one of the options (Syslog.Local.DatastorePath or Syslog.Remote.Hostname) so that you have the logs is a persistent state.

I have set it up shops with both physical and virtual syslog servers, but the logging should really be dictated by the demand or need.  If you are logging to both a local datastore and the syslog server, then you might be able to stand an outage of the syslog server.

Good Luck!

[kopper27]

I did not know you could have local syslog how is the procedure to be configured?

sounds more realible to have both implemented local and virtual

[vmroyale]

The procedure for configuring both can be found in kb 1016621.

[kopper27]

done guys

thanks a lot

1. Go to ESXi Server

2. Advance settings

3. Syslog

4. Add to Syslog.Local.DatastorePath values below

form:
[ESXi_LocalDataStore]/folder/messages

important create folder in
mkdir /vmfs/volumes/ESXi_LocalDataStore/folder_name

now I will be using local logs and VMA

thanks a lot