Browsing Vmware logs in the DCUI (view esxi logs via console)

Why would you view your logs in the console?
Well sometimes it's the only place that is accessible if there is an error.




Go to your DCUI , which is the console, and logon
You will have to press F2 to get this





 Go down to view system logs
On the right side you will see the different logs you can browse.







The logs you can choose:
1. Syslog.log
2. Vmkernal.log
3. Config.log
4. Management Agent (hostd.log)
5. Virutalcenter agent (vpxa.log)
6. Vmware esxi observation log (vobd)




Press 1 to view the syslog
This is what will come up











How to navigate the log.
Standard stuff
Press the down arrow to go down
Press the up arrow to go up
Press the right arrow to go right
Press the left arrow to move left.
Page down is down a page
Page up is up a page


The above might seem ridiculous to say, but some people are confused by the interface.


The good stuff:
Press G to go to the end of the log. That’s a CAPITAL G, yes uppercase.
Press g to go back to the beginning of the log. That is lowercase  g


To search:
Press /  then the text you want to search for down the log
Press ? Then the text you want to search for up the log
Hit n lower case to find the next instance forward
Hit N uppercase to find the next instance backwards
Example: looking for pam_per_user
Typ e in:  /pam_per_user   then press enter


**note search is case sensitive














You can see the pam_per_user highlighted.
If I keep hitting lowercase n I will get to the last one.













If the words were not found OR you already went past the last instance of the term you will get this at the bottom









You can search for multiple words with spaces in them too.




















Press H  upper or lower for more help.
Press escape if you are stuck somewhere

There are 5 screens worth of commands and what they do if you go into the help menu. Most of them are not relevant for diagnosing so I wouldn't take the time out to learn them, unless you feel you might be in the DCUI log screen a lot. Hopefully you wont!

For what the logs do go here: http://sparrowangelstechnology.blogspot.com/2012/07/what-to-dcui-console-logs-show.html