Providing Sufficient Space For System Logging; Required Ports For Vcenter Server - VMware VS4-ENT-PL-A - vSphere Enterprise Plus Setup Manual

Providing Sufficient Space for System Logging

ESXi 5.x uses a new log infrastructure. If your host is deployed with Auto Deploy, or if you set up a log
directory separate from the default location in a scratch directory on the VMFS volume, you might need to
change your current log size and rotation settings to ensure that enough space for system logging exists.
All vSphere components use this infrastructure. The default values for log capacity in this infrastructure
vary, depending on the amount of storage available and on how you have configured system logging. Hosts
that are deployed with Auto Deploy store logs on a RAM disk, which means that the amount of space
available for logs is small.
If your host is deployed with Auto Deploy, reconfigure your log storage in one of the following ways:
Redirect logs over the network to a remote collector.
n
Redirect logs to a NAS or NFS store.
n
You might also want to reconfigure log sizing and rotations for hosts that are installed to disk, if you
redirect logs to nondefault storage, such as a NAS or NFS store.
You do not need to reconfigure log storage for ESXi hosts that use the default configuration, which stores
logs in a scratch directory on the VMFS volume. For these hosts, ESXi 5.x autoconfigures logs to best suit
your installation, and provides enough space to accommodate log messages.
Table 2‑11. Recommended Minimum Size and Rotation Configuration for hostd, vpxa, and fdm Logs.
Log
Management Agent
(hostd)
VirtualCenter Agent
(vpxa)
vSphere HA agent (Fault
Domain Manager, fdm)
For information about setting up a remote log server, see
and "Install or Upgrade vSphere Syslog Collector,"

Required Ports for vCenter Server

The VMware vCenter Server system must be able to send data to every managed host and receive data from
every vSphere Web Client. To enable migration and provisioning activities between managed hosts, the
source and destination hosts must be able to receive data from each other.
For information about ports required for the vCenter Server Appliance, see
Server Appliance,"
VMware uses designated ports for communication. Additionally, the managed hosts monitor designated
ports for data from the vCenter Server system. If a firewall exists between any of these elements and
Windows firewall service is in use, the installer opens the ports during the installation. For custom firewalls,
you must manually open the required ports. If you have a firewall between two managed hosts and you
want to perform source or target activities, such as migration or cloning, you must configure a means for the
managed hosts to receive data.
N In Microsoft Windows Server 2008, a firewall is enabled by default.
OTE
VMware, Inc.
Maximum Log File Size
10240KB
5120KB
5120KB
on page 25.
Number of Rotations to
Preserve Minimum Disk Space Required
10 100MB
10 50MB
10 50MB
"Configure Syslog on ESXi Hosts,"
on page 108.
"Required Ports for the vCenter
Chapter 2 System Requirements
on page 262
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