The VmkernelLogTest monitors the /var/log/vmkernel log file of a VMware ESX server. Any new failed messages are tracked and alerted on by this test.

Note:

By default, on an ESX server, the vmkernel log file can be accessed only by a root user. If the eG user is not installed as the root user of the target ESX server, then the eG user needs to be granted the permission to read the vmkernel log file. To do so, execute the following command on the ESX server: chmod 644 /var/log/vmkernel.

This page depicts the default parameters that need to be configured for the VmkernelLogTest .

• The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed. 

• In the ALERTFILE text box, specify the default specification as vmkernel@/var/log/vmkernel. If you need to change this to a different log file, specify the path to the log file to be monitored. For eg., /user/john/new_john.log. Multiple log file paths can be provided as a comma-separated list - eg., /user/john/critical_egurkha.log,/tmp/log/major.log.

  Also, instead of a specific log file path, the path to the directory containing log files can be provided - eg., /user/logs. This ensures that eG Enterprise monitors the most recent log files in the specified directory. Specific log file name patterns can also be specified. For example, to monitor the latest log files with names containing the strings 'dblogs' and 'applogs', the parameter specification can be, /tmp/db/*dblogs*,/tmp/app/*applogs*. Here, '*' indicates leading/trailing characters (as the case may be). In this case, the eG agent first enumerates all the log files in the specified path that match the given pattern, and then picks only the latest log file from the result set for monitoring.

  You can also configure the path in the following format: Name@logfilepath. Here, Name represents the display name of the path being configured. Accordingly, the parameter specification for the 'dblogs' and 'applogs' example discussed above can be: dblogs@/tmp/db/*dblogs*,applogs@/tmp/app/*applogs*. In this case, the display names 'dblogs' and 'applogs' will alone be displayed as descriptors of this test.

  Every time this test is executed, the eG agent verifies the following:

  • Whether any changes have occurred in the size and/or timestamp of the log files that were monitoring during the last measurement period;
  • Whether any new log files (that match the ALERTFILE specification) have been newly added since the last measurement period;

  If a few lines have been added to a log file that was monitored previously, then the eG agent monitors the additions to that log file, and then proceeds to monitor newer log files (if any). If an older log file has been overwritten, then, the eG agent monitors this log file completely, and then proceeds to monitor the newer log files (if any).

• By default, failed messages logged in the vmkernel log are reported by this test. If you wish to change the search pattern for messages, then, in the SEARCHPATTERN text box, specify a pattern in the following format: <PatternName>:<Pattern>, where <PatternName> is the pattern name that will be displayed in the monitor interface and <Pattern> is an expression of the form - *expr* or expr or *expr or expr*, etc. A leading '*' signifies any number of leading characters, while a trailing '*' signifies any number of trailing characters.

  For example, say you specify VM:VM-* in the SEARCHPATTERN text box. This indicates that "VM" is the pattern name to be displayed in the monitor interface. "VM-*" indicates that the test will monitor only those lines in the alert log which start with the term "VM-". Similarly, if your pattern specification reads: offline:*offline, then it means that the pattern name is offline and that the test will monitor those lines in the alert log which end with the term offline.   A single pattern may also be of the form e1+e2, where + signifies an OR condition. That is, the PatternName is matched if either e1 is true or e2 is true.

  Multiple search patterns can be specified as a comma-separated list. For example: VM:VM-*,offline:*offline*,online:*online

  If the ALERTFILE specification is of the format Name@logfilepath, then the descriptor for this test in the eG monitor interface will be of the format: Name:PatternName. On the other hand, if the ALERTFILE specification consists only of a comma-separated list of log file paths, then the descriptors will be of the format: LogFilePath:PatternName. If you want all the messages in a log file to be monitored, then your specification would be: <PatternName>:*. .

• In the LINES text box, specify two numbers in the format x:y. This means that when a line in the alert file matches a particular pattern, then x lines before the matched line and y lines after the matched line will be reported in the detail diagnosis output (in addition to the matched line). The default value here is 0:0. Multiple entries can be provided as a comma-separated list. 

  If you give 1:1 as the value for LINES, then this value will be applied to all the patterns specified in the SEARCHPATTERN field. If you give 0:0,1:1,2:1 as the value for LINES and if the corresponding value in the SEARCHPATTERN filed is like VM:VM-*,offline:*offline*,online:*online then:

  0:0 will be applied to VM:VM-* pattern

  1:1 will be applied to offline:*offline* pattern

  2:1 will be applied to online:*online pattern

• Provide a comma-separated list of patterns to be excluded from monitoring in the EXCLUDEPATTERN text box. For example, *critical*,*exception*. By default, this parameter is set to 'none'.

• By default, the UNIQUEMATCH parameter is set to FALSE, indicating that, by default, the test checks every line in the log file for the existence of each of the configured SEARCHPATTERNS. By setting this parameter to TRUE, you can instruct the test to ignore a line and move to the next as soon as a match for one of the configured patterns is found in that line. For example, assume that Pattern1:*fatal*,Pattern2:*error* is the SEARCHPATTERN that has been configured. If UNIQUEMATCH is set to FALSE, then the test will read every line in the log file completely to check for the existence of messages embedding the strings 'fatal' and 'error'. If both the patterns are detected in the same line, then the number of matches will be incremented by 2. On the other hand, if UNIQUEMATCH is set to TRUE, then the test will read a line only until a match for one of the configured patterns is found and not both. This means that even if the strings 'fatal' and 'error' follow one another in the same line, the test will consider only the first match and not the next. The match count in this case will therefore be incremented by only 1.

• The ROTATINGFILE flag governs the display of descriptors for this test in the eG monitoring console.

  If this flag is set to true and the ALERTFILE text box contains the full path to a specific (log/text) file, then, the descriptors of this test will be displayed in the following format: Directory_containing_monitored_file:<SearchPattern>. For instance, if the ALERTFILE parameter is set to c:\eGurkha\logs\syslog.txt, and ROTATINGFILE is set to true, then, your descriptor will be of the following format: c:\eGurkha\logs:<SearchPattern>. On the other hand, if the ROTATINGFILE flag had been set to false, then the descriptors will be of the following format: <FileName>:<SearchPattern> - i.e., syslog.txt:<SearchPattern> in the case of the example above.

  If this flag is set to true and the ALERTFILE parameter is set to the directory containing log files, then, the descriptors of this test will be displayed in the format: Configured_directory_path:<SearchPattern>. For instance, if the ALERTFILE parameter is set to c:\eGurkha\logs, and ROTATINGFILE is set to true, then, your descriptor will be: c:\eGurkha\logs:<SearchPattern>. On the other hand, if the ROTATINGFILE parameter had been set to false, then the descriptors will be of the following format: Configured_directory:<SearchPattern> - i.e., logs:<SearchPattern> in the case of the example above.

  If this flag is set to true and the ALERTFILE parameter is set to a specific file pattern, then, the descriptors of this test will be of the following format: <FilePattern>:<SearchPattern>. For instance, if the ALERTFILE parameter is set to c:\eGurkha\logs\*sys*, and ROTATINGFILE is set to true, then, your descriptor will be: *sys*:<SearchPattern>. In this case, the descriptor format will not change even if the ROTATINGFILE flag status is changed. .

• DD FREQUENCY refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD FREQUENCY.

• Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the Update button will register the changes made.

When changing default configurations of tests, the values with "$" indicate variables that will be replaced by the eG system according to the specific server being managed - for instance, $hostName is the host/nickname of the target host, $port is the port number of the server being monitored. E.g., for a server xyz:80, $hostName will be changed automatically by the eG manager to "xyz" and $port will be changed to "80" when configuring a test.

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