Syslog server?

[galibai]

Hi, is it necessary to have a seperate syslog server for ESXi ?

Thanks

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You can set the syslog service to use a local datastore to log data which ensures that log data will survive a reboot or unexpected host restart.  A central syslog server enables gathering of all syslog data from many hosts to a central spot.  If you don't want to deploy a syslog server you might consider the vilogger service that comes with the vMA appliance.  It is able to gather logs from ESXi hosts and vCenter.

[cmacmillan]

If your shared storage has NAS capabilities, I'd suggest logging each host to a shared NFS storage device and bypass the syslog server altogether. This would allow you to have ready access to the logs - outside of VMware - and not have to worry about syslog server setup, etc. Make sure each ESXi host is logging to a separate folder in the NFS file system.

If your only choice is iSCSI/FC, then go with the central syslog server.

-- Collin C. MacMillan, VCP4
Cisco CCNA/CCNP, Nexenta CNE
VMware vExpert 2010
SOLORI - Solution Oriented, LLC
http://blog.solori.net

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