Introduction
When something goes wrong in your cloud infrastructure, VMware Support (Broadcom) will almost always ask for a Support Bundle. Gathering these logs quickly can save you hours of downtime.
This guide provides a single, go-to reference to collect logs for vCenter Server(VC), ESXi, NSX, Supervisor Clusters, and VKS Clusters.
Bill of Material (BOM) used in Demo
- VCF 9.1
- VKS 3.6
vCenter Server (VC)
Option A: The UI Method (VAMI Interface)
- Go to the vCenter Appliance Management Interface: https://
:5480 - Log in as root
In the top right corner, click Actions > Create Support Bundle.
Option B: The Command Line (CLI)
- SSH into your vCenter Server Appliance as root
- If it logs in to the Appliance Shell in default, run the shell.set --enabled True command and shell command to launch the Bash. - Run the vc-support -l command to create a vCenter log bundle
Note: The console output will show you the exact directory path where the compressed log file was saved.
ESXi Hosts
Option A: The UI Method (vSphere Client)
-
Log in to the vSphere Client
-
Navigate to Hosts and Clusters and select the ESXi host.
-
Right-click the host and select Export System Logs.
Select the logs you want and click Export.
Option B: The Command Line (CLI)
- SSH into your ESXi server as root and run the following command
Note: The console output will show you the exact directory path where the compressed log file was saved.
NSX
Option A: The UI Method (NSX Manager)
- Log in to the NSX Manager UI.
- Go to System > Support Bundles.
Select the components you want to collect logs from (e.g., NSX Managers, Edge Nodes, ESXi Hosts, Antrea Container clusters or Virtual Network Appliance).
Click Start Bundle Collection and download it once finished.
Option B : The Command Line (CLI)
- SSH into the NSX Manager appliance using admin credentials and run: get support-bundle file manager-bundle.tgz
vSphere Supervisor Cluster
The UI Method (vSphere Client)
- Log in to the vSphere Client.
- Navigate to Menu > Supervisor Management.
- Click on the Supervisors tab.
- Select your target Supervisor Cluster.
- Click Export Logs
VKS Cluster
Please refer my article Collecting VKS Support Bundles Using GuestOps
Disclaimer
This guide is for educational and operational purposes only. Always validate in a non-production environment before applying in production systems. Behavior may vary depending on VC, ESXi, NSX, Supervisor and VKS versions.
Refer to official Broadcom documentation for the latest guidance.