How to configure ESXi 7.x/8.x dump collector on vCenter Server 7.x/8.x
Published: 2023-04-03 13:15:56

Prerequisite:

- Make sure that vCenter Server has enough space in /storage/core/ partition using df -h command.
 
Procedure to configure:
 

- 1] First thing first login to your vCenter Server appliance using web client (VAMI) and start the dump collector service. By default, this service, which starts manually, is in stopped state.


- 2] Check current state of coredump. By default it is disabled. 
 

```
   esxcli system coredump network check
   Network coredump not enabled
```
 

- 3] Confirm vmk0 is configured with the IP which is reachable to vCenter server.
 

```
esxcli network ip interface ipv4 get --interface-name=vmk0
Name  IPv4 Address  IPv4 Netmask   IPv4 Broadcast  Address Type  Gateway        DHCP DNS
----  ------------  -------------  --------------  ------------  -------------  --------
vmk0  192.168.1.20  255.255.255.0  192.168.1.255   STATIC        192.168.1.250     false
```
           
           

- 4] Set up an ESXi system to use ESXi Dump Collector by running esxcli system coredump in the local ESXi Shell or by using ESXCLI.
 

```
esxcli system coredump network set --interface-name vmk0 --server-ip 10.10.11.7 --server-port 6500
```

> 10.10.11.7 is your vCenter Server IP
           

- 5] Enable ESXi Dump Collector
 

```
esxcli system coredump network set --enable true
```
 

- 6] Check the details are set properly or not
 

```
esxcli system coredump network get
 Enabled: true
 Host VNic: vmk0
 Is Using IPv6: false
 Network Server IP: 10.10.11.7
 Network Server Port: 6500
```
 

- 7] Refresh the firewall rules so the changes take effect by running the command
 

```
esxcli network firewall refresh
```
 

- 8] Check the connectivity
 

```
nc -z -w 1 -s 192.168.1.20 -u 10.10.11.7 6500
  Connection to 10.10.11.7 6500 port [udp/*] succeeded!
```
 

- 9] Check current state of coredump. Now it should be in running state.
 

```
esxcli system coredump network check
```
 

- 10] Check the logs
           

```
root@set11-res-vc [ /var/log/vmware/netdumper ]# tail netdumper.log
2023-04-03T08:41:53.192Z In(05) netdumper Configured to handle 1024 clients in parallel.
2023-04-03T08:41:53.192Z In(05) netdumper Configuring /var/core/netdumps as the directory to store the cores
2023-04-03T08:41:53.192Z In(05) netdumper Configured to use wildcard [::0/0.0.0.0]:6500 as IP address:port
2023-04-03T08:41:53.192Z In(05) netdumper Using /var/log/vmware/netdumper/netdumper.log as the logfile.
2023-04-03T08:41:53.192Z In(05) netdumper Nothing to post process
2023-04-03T08:41:53.192Z In(05) netdumper Configured size limits: 5 GB per file, 10 GB per host, 20 GB for all
2023-04-03T08:41:53.192Z In(05) netdumper Running netdumper version 1.2
2023-04-03T08:41:53.192Z In(05) netdumper Netdumper Service is running in FIPS mode.
2023-04-03T08:45:15.028Z In(05) netdumper Posting back a status check reply to ::ffff:192.168.1.20
2023-04-03T09:04:26.763Z In(05) netdumper Posting back a status check reply to ::ffff:192.168.1.20
```
 
 
Reference documents:

- https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.esxi.install.doc/GUID-85D78165-E590-42CF-80AC-E78CBA307232.html