The VmMessagesLogTest monitors the log file that contains general log messages used to troubleshoot issues with the virtual machines on an ESX server. The test scans the log file for entries matching configured patterns, and alerts administrators whenever such entries are found in the log file.

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

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

• To enable this test to read the log file and report metrics, the test should be configured with an ESX USER and ESX PASSWORD. Typically, a user with Administrator privileges to the target ESX server can be set as the ESX USER. However, if, owing to security constraints, you cannot expose the credentials of the Administrator, then you can create a special role for this purpose in the ESX server, and grant the Diagnostics permission to this role. You can then add a new user to the ESX server, and assign the newly created role to that user. The credentials of this user can then be passed to the ESX USER and ESX PASSWORD parameters. The detailed procedure for accomplishing this task is available in the Monitoring VMware Infrastructures document.

• Confirm the password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box.

• By default, the ESX server is SSL-enabled. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to Yes by default. This indicates that the eG agent will communicate with the ESX server via HTTPS by default.

• In the MESSAGE PATTERNS text box, specify the pattern to search for in the log file 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 MESSAGE PATTERNS text box. This indicates that "VM" is the pattern name that will be displayed as a descriptor of this test in the monitor interface. "VM-*" indicates that the test will monitor only those lines in the log file 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 log which end with the term offline.  

  Multiple search patterns can be specified as a comma-separated list. For example: VM:VM-*,offline:*offline*,online:*online. If you want to monitor all the entries in the log file, your specification would be all:all.

• In the IGNORE MESSAGE LINES text box, specify the pattern of entries that is to be excluded from monitoring. For example, if you want the test to disregard those entries which begin with the term VM, then specify VM* in the IGNORE MESSAGE LINES text box. Multiple search patterns can be specified as a comma-separated list. For example, VM*,*VM. A leading '*' signifies any number of leading characters, while a trailing '*' signifies any number of trailing characters. If no lines are to be ignored, then enter none here. If you want to ignore all the lines in the log file, your specification would be all:all.

• By default, this test monitors the service console log file for Rejected_password_msgs, Informations, Warnings, and Errors. If the detailed diagnosis capability is turned on for this test, then the test will store the details of each and every entry that matches the above-mentioned patterns in the eG database. Typically, in most virtualized environments, a large number of Informations might be logged in the log file; this in turn means that the detailed diagnosis for the Informations descriptor of this test could occupy a huge chunk of the database space, and with time, can even choke the database. To reduce the stress on the database, it would be best to turn off the detailed diagnosis capability of the Informations descriptor alone. This is why the SHOW INFORMATION DD flag of this test is set to No by default. Later, if you want to enable the detailed diagnosis capability for the Informations descriptor, you can do so by simply setting the SHOW INFORMATION DD flag to Yes.

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• 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.