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vCenter Troubleshooting Tips, Common Issues & Log Locations

🚀 1. General Troubleshooting Approach

A. Check service health first

For vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA):

Shell
https://<vcenter-FQDN>:5480

Go to Services → Health to verify:

  • vCenter Server
  • ESXi hosts
  • vSphere Client
  • DNS, NTP, DB connections
  • vpxd, vpxd-svcs, vsphere-ui

B. DNS & NTP checks

vCenter is highly dependent on correct DNS & time sync.

Check:

Shell
nslookup <vcenter-fqdn>
nslookup <esxi-host-fqdn>

Time drift > 5 minutes causes:

  • Login failures
  • vpxd crashes
  • PSC authentication issues

C. Check storage/database health

Slow DB/storage = UI slow, tasks hung.

For VCSA:

Shell
df -h
du -sh /storage/log /* /var/log

Free up space if partitions hit >80%.

D. Restart critical services safely

On VCSA:

Shell
service-control --status
service-control --stop --all
service-control --start --all

On ESXi host:

Shell
/etc/init.d/hostd restart
/etc/init.d/vpxa restart

❗️2. Common vCenter Issues & Fixes

1. 🔴 vSphere Client (UI) not loading

Cause:

  • vsphere-ui or vsphere-client service down
  • vpxd overloaded

Fix:

Shell
service-control --status vsphere-ui vsphere-client
service-control --restart vsphere-ui vsphere-client

2. 🟠 vCenter performance slow / timed out

Check:

  • CPU/RAM of VCSA
  • DB partition /storage/db
  • Many async tasks stuck in VPX_TASK table
  • Reverse DNS failures

3. 🔐 Cannot login to vCenter

Check:

  • Identity source / SSO service
  • Password expiry of administrator@vsphere.local
  • NTP sync issues

Restart SSO:

Shell
service-control --restart vmware-stsd
service-control --restart vmware-sts-idmd

4. 🧩 ESXi host disconnected from vCenter

Possible causes:

  • vpxa service failure
  • Firewall blocking
  • Hostd hung
  • Certificate trust issue

Fix:

Shell
/etc/init.d/hostd restart
/etc/init.d/vpxa restart

5. 🔵 vCenter services crash (vpxd)

Check logs (below) for:

  • DB corruption
  • Storage latency
  • SSO token timeout

📁 3. vCenter (VCSA) Log Locations

VCSA = Photon OS (Linux appliance).
All logs under /var/log/ or /storage/log/

A. Core vCenter logs

ComponentPathPurpose
vpxd.log/var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.logMain vCenter service log (core engine)
vpxd-svcs.log/var/log/vmware/vpxd-svcs/Inventory service / stats / tasks
vsphere-ui.log/var/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/HTML5 client UI failures
vsphere-client.log/var/log/vmware/vsphere-client/Legacy Flash UI (older versions)
sso logs/var/log/vmware/sso/Authentication/identity source issues
vmware-stsd.log/var/log/vmware/sso/STS token issues
cmsso-util.log/var/log/vmware/cmsso-util/PSC, domain join issues
eam.log/var/log/vmware/eam/ESX Agent Manager (used by NSX, vShield)
vmdir.log/var/log/vmware/vmdir/Embedded PSC directory service

B. Appliance OS logs

DescriptionPath
System messages/var/log/messages
Shell operations/var/log/shell.log
Update logs/var/log/vmware/applmgmt/

C. rhttpproxy logs (reverse proxy)

Used for UI/API load balancing:

/var/log/vmware/rhttpproxy/

D. Database logs

VCSA uses PostgreSQL:

/var/log/vmware/vpostgres/

Look for:

  • Transaction ID wraparound
  • DB “autovacuum” failures
  • Slow queries

📁 4. ESXi Host Log Locations (Quick Reference)

LogFilePurpose
Host daemon/var/log/hostd.logHost ↔ vCenter communication
VMkernel/var/log/vmkernel.logStorage, network, driver issues
vpxa/var/log/vpxa.logESXi agent used by vCenter
Management service/var/log/vmkwarning.logDevice/time warnings
Boot log/var/log/sysboot.logBoot errors

🔍 5. Helpful Commands for Real-Time Troubleshooting

Tail logs live

Shell
tail -f /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log
tail -f /var/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/vsphere-ui-runtime.log

Check service status

Shell
service-control --status

Check environment & health

Shell
vmon-cli --status
df -h
ntpq -p



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