Tag Archives: VMware

ESX 3.5 Logfile locations

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source http://www.vmwarewolf.com

VMWare ESX Server 3.5

  • Vmkernel – /var/log/vmkernel – records activities related to the virtual machines and ESX server.
  • Vmkernel Warnings – /var/log/vmkwarning – records activities with the virtual machines.
  • Vmkernel Summary – /var/log/vmksummary – Used to determine uptime and availability statistics for ESX Server; human-readable summary found in /var/log/vmksummary.txt
  • ESX Server host agent log – /var/log/vmware/hostd.log – Contains information on the agent that manages and configures the ESX Server host and its virtual machines (Search the file date/time stamps to find the log file it is currently outputting to).
  • Service Console – /var/log/messages – Contain all general log messages used to troubleshoot virtual machines on ESX Server.
  • Web Access – /var/log/vmware/webAccess – Records information on Web-based access to ESX Server.
  • Authentication log – /var/log/secure – Contains records of connections that require authentication, such as VMware daemons and actions initiated by the xinetd daemon.
  • VirtualCenter agent – /var/log/vmware/vpx – Contains information on the agent that communicates with VirtualCenter.
  • Virtual Machines – The same directory as the affected virtual machine’s configuration files; named vmware.log – Contain information when a virtual machine crashes or ends abnormally.

Get Daily CPU statistics in your mail

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Thanks to the previous post (http://lucd.info/?p=1455) and a little extra scripting, i am able to run a script which will run daily scheduled and email the results to my mailbox.

This script will mail a CSV file with all cpu averages in 5 minutes samples between 7.30 and 19:30 off a specific Virtual machine.

If other counters are needed, you can find them in the following document: http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vc-sdk/visdk25pubs/visdk25programmingguide.pdf

Beneath is the script i’m using (change all bold items):

Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core

# Mail variables
$enablemail="yes"
$smtpServer = "smtpserver"
$mailfrom = "emailadres"
$mailto = "emailadres1,emailadres2"

# Server Variables
$VIServer = "viserver"
$vmName = "vmname"

# Log File Location
$log = "path\CPU_Stats" + "_" + $VMname+ ".csv"

# Connect to the VI Server
Connect-VIServer $VIServer

# Script
$esxImpl = Get-VM -Name $vmName
$todayMidnight = (Get-Date -Hour 0 -Minute 0 -Second 0).AddMinutes(-1)
$workingDays = "Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday"
$dayStart = New-Object DateTime(1,1,1,7,30,0)     # 07:30 AM
$dayEnd = New-Object DateTime(1,1,1,19,30,0)      # 07:30 PM

$stats = Get-Stat -Entity $esxImpl -Stat cpu.usage.average -Start $todayMidnight.AddDays(-0) -Finish $todayMidnight.AddDays(+1)
$report = $stats | Where-Object {
	$workingDays -contains $_.Timestamp.DayOfWeek -and
	$_.Timestamp.TimeOfDay -gt $dayStart.TimeOfDay -and
	$_.Timestamp.TimeOfDay -lt $dayEnd.TimeOfDay
}

$report | Export-Csv $log -NoTypeInformation

if ($enablemail -match "yes")
{
$msg = new-object Net.Mail.MailMessage
$att = new-object Net.Mail.Attachment($log)
$smtp = new-object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
$msg.From = $mailfrom
$msg.To.Add($mailto)
$msg.Subject = “CPU Statistics $VMname”
$msg.Body = “Business-hours CPU Statistics are attached   ”
$msg.Attachments.Add($att)
$smtp.Send($msg)
}

$VIServer | Disconnect-VIServer -Confirm:$false

esxcfg-info – VMware ESX Server Info tool

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/usr/sbin/esxcfg-info provides a view of the internal state of the VMkernel and Service Console components.  This tool is designed to provide information used in debugging and troubleshooting VMware ESX Servers.

OPTIONS
     -N N    Print info output for N iterations.

     -a –all
             Print all information available through esxcfg-info.

     -w –hardware
             Print hardware information.

     -r –resource
             Print resource and schedule information.

     -s –storage
             Print storage and disk-related information.

     -n –network
             Print console and VMkernel networking information.

     -y –system
             Print ESX Server system software information.

     -o –advopt
             Print the advanced options.

Stats like:

                  \==+Vcpu 0 Times :
                     |----Up Time...................................5948953771096
                     |----Used Time.................................121045150047
                     |----System time...............................757604332
                     |----Run Time..................................120931466689
                     |----Total Wait Time...........................5810226229619
                     |----Ready Time................................17792379668
                     |----Extra Time................................137103851718
                  \==+Vcpu 1 Times :
                     |----Up Time...................................5948953683199
                     |----Used Time.................................86015359219
                     |----System time...............................0
                     |----Run Time..................................86442159816
                     |----Total Wait Time...........................5841800107575
                     |----Ready Time................................20711030428
                     |----Extra Time................................137103851718
                  \==+Affinity Info :
                     |----Constrained...............................false
                     |----Joint.....................................true
                     |----User set..................................false
                     |----HyperThreading............................Any
                  \==+Memory Client Stats :
                     |----Touched...................................102.40 MB
                     |----Current Size..............................2.00 GB
                     |----Target Size...............................1.42 GB
                     |----Balloon Active............................1 KB
                     |----Balloon Size..............................0 KB
                     |----Balloon Target............................0 KB
                     |----Balloon Maximum...........................1.30 GB
                     |----Checkpoint Read...........................0 KB
                     |----Checkpoint Target.........................0 KB
                     |----Shared....................................1.26 GB
                     |----Zero......................................166.54 MB
                     |----Shared Saved..............................797.06 MB
                     |----COW hint..................................711.30 MB
                     |----Userworld Overhead........................47.45 MB
                     |----Overhead..................................116.24 MB
                     |----Overhead Maximum..........................207.61 MB

PowerCLI – VM Guest Disk Sizes

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A oneline script to show the VM disk (or partiton) for each of your VM’s:

ForEach ($VM in (Get-VM |Get-View)){($VM.Guest.Disk |Select @{N=“Name“;E={$VM.Name}},DiskPath, @{N=“Capacity(MB)“;E={[math]::Round($_.Capacity/ 1MB)}}, @{N=“Free Space(MB)“;E={[math]::Round($_.FreeSpace / 1MB)}}, @{N=“Free Space %“;E={[math]::Round(((100 * ($_.FreeSpace))/ ($_.Capacity)),0)}}) | Format-Table}

Or look at the “advanced” script of virtu-al (http://www.virtu-al.net/2010/01/27/powercli-virtual-machine-disk-usage/)

Windows Server Virtualization Links

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At the customers site we are calculating Microsoft Licenses to buy for a new environment. A few links with a lot of information about microsoft licensing and vmware:

Windows Server Virtualization Calculators

Edition comparison by Technical Specification

Overview of Licensing for Virtualization

Licensing Microsoft Windows Server 2008 to Run with Virtualization Technologies

Performance Troubleshooting for VMware vSphere 4

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Performance problems can arise in any computing environment. Complex application behaviors, changing demands, and shared infrastructure can lead to problems arising in previously stable environments. Troubleshooting performance problems requires an understanding of the interactions between the software and hardware components of a computing environment. Moving to a virtualized computing environment adds new software layers and new types of interactions that must be considered when troubleshooting performance problems.

The attached document is the first installment in a guide covering performance troubleshooting in a vSphere environment. It uses a guided approach to lead the reader through the observable manifestations of complex hardware/software interactions in order to identify specific performance problems. For each problem covered, it includes a discussion of the possible root-causes and solutions. Topics covered include performance problems arising from issues in the CPU, memory, storage, and network subsystems, as well as in the VM and ESX host configuration. Guidance is given on relevant performance metrics to observe using the vSphere Client and esxtop in order to isolate specific performance issues.

This first installment of Performance Troubleshooting for VMware vSphere 4 covers performance troubleshooting on a single VMware ESX 4.0 host. It focuses on the most common performance problems which affect an ESX host. Future updates will add more detailed performance information, including troubleshooting information for more advanced problems and multi-host vSphere deployments.

vsphere4-performance-troubleshooting.pdf

source