VMware Log File Locations

Log File

Name

Details

/var/log/vmkernel

Vmkernel

Records activities related to the virtual machines and ESX host

/var/log/vmkwarning

Vmkernel Warnings

A copy of everything marked as a warning or higher severity from vmkernel log. Easier to look through than vmkernel log

/var/log/vmksummary

Vmkernel Summary

Used for avaialability and uptime statistics. Human-readable summary in vmksummary.txt

/var/log/vmware/hostd.log

Host Agent Log

Contains information on the agent that manages and configures the ESX host and its virtual machines

/var/log/vmware/vpx

VirtualCenter Agent

Contains information on the agent that communicates with VirtualCenter

/var/log/messages

Service Console

Log from the Linux kernel. Useful for underlying linux issues. The kernel has no awareness of VMs running on the VMkernel

/var/log/vmware/esxcfg-boot.log

ESX Boot Log

ESX Boot log, logs all ESX boot events

/var/log/vmware/webAccess

Web Access

Records information on Web-based access to ESX Server

/var/log/secure

Authentication Log

Contains records of connections that require authentication, such as VMware daemons and actions initiated by the xinetd daemon

/var/log/vmware/esxcfg-firewall.log

ESX Firewall Log

Contains all firewall rule events

/var/log/vmware/aam

High Availability Log

Contains information related to the High Availability (HA) service

/var/log/vmware/esxupdate.log

ESX Update Log

Logs all updates completed using the esxupdate tool