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 Configuring vCSA 8.0U3 to send logs to SPLUNK

Vince Rucolas's profile image
Vince Rucolas posted Aug 27, 2026 02:34 PM

I have changed Syslog in the VAMI to syslog.mydomain.com TCP 514,  I changed the advaced settings on the ESXi host to the same URL.   Splunk is gettng logs but they are not in the correct format according to the third party Splunk support we have.  
They want me to change the following.

On the vcenter deployment, under /etc/rsyslog.conf you will want your conf to look like below (Replace <IP/HOSTNAME> with the IP address of the hostname of the machine where you want to receive the vCSA logs.)


$template vclogtemplate,"%syslogtag% %rawmsg%"
 
$ModLoad imfile
$InputFileName /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log
$InputFileTag vpxd
$InputFileStateFile state-vpxd
$InputFileSeverity all
$InputRunFileMonitor
 
$ModLoad imfile
$InputFileName /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd-profiler.log
$InputFileTag vpxd-profiler
$InputFileStateFile state-vpxd-profiler
$InputFileSeverity all
$InputRunFileMonitor
 
$ModLoad imfile
$InputFileName /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd-alert.log
$InputFileTag vpxd-alert
$InputFileStateFile state-vpxd-alert
$InputFileSeverity all
$InputRunFileMonitor
 
 *.* @@<IP/HOSTNAME>:1517;vclogtemplate


On the vcenter side /etc/rsyslog.conf, VMware also replaces the following line "$IncludeConfig /etc/rsyslog.d/*.conf” with "$IncludeConfig /etc/vmware-syslog/syslog.conf” and then has a ton of its own imfile monitoring in there so we also need to add that original line back right under the new one.


After adding the above configs, restart the syslog service with the below command:
service syslog restart

When I list [ ~ ] ls /etc/rsyslog.d the directory is empty.   I do see the file in /etc/vmware-syslog/syslog.conf and it lists the changes I did in the VAMI.   

Does anyone understand this and can help me understand it.    The third-party Splunk support doesn't know VMware and is just pulling things off the internet.

Thanks

Radwan Almsora's profile image
Radwan Almsora

Modifying /etc/rsyslog.conf directly on vCenter Server Appliance 8.0 breaks VMware's native log forwarding framework and will be overwritten during future updates. Instead of applying generic Linux rsyslog configurations, administrators should manage log forwarding through the VAMI and ensure Splunk uses the appropriate official add-ons to parse incoming data.

Vince Rucolas's profile image
Vince Rucolas

Thanks Radwan,   do you know of the names of the add-ons you are referring too?