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How do I configure log forwarding to
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
 in
VMware Aria Automation
Last Updated February 19, 2025

To take advantage of more robust log analysis and report generation, you can forward logs from
VMware Aria Automation
 to
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
.
VMware Aria Automation
 contains a fluentd-based logging agent. The agent collects and stores logs so that they can be included in a log bundle and examined later. The agent can forward a copy of the logs to a
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
 server by using the
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
 REST API. The API allows other programs to communicate with
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
.
For more information about
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
, including documentation for the REST API, see
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
documentation.
To forward all
VMware Aria Automation
 logs to
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
, use
vracli
 configuration commands.
You can examine each log line in
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
. Each log line contains a host name and an environment tag. In a high availability (HA) environment, logs contains tags with different host names depending on the node from which they originated. The environment tag is configurable by using the
--environment ENV
 option as described in the
Configure or update integration of
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
 section. In a high availability (HA) environment, the environment tag has the same value for all log lines.
To display information about how to use the
vracli
 command line utility, use the
--help
 argument in the
vracli
 command line. For example,
vracli vrli --help
. For a user-friendly response, begin the command with
vracli -j vrli
.
You can only configure a single remote logging integration.
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
 has priority when a
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
 server and a
syslog
 server are available.

Check existing configuration of
VMware Aria Operations for Logs

Command
vracli vrli
Arguments
There are no command line arguments.
Output
The current configuration for
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
 integration is output in JSON format.
Exit codes
The following exit codes are possible:
  • 0 - Integration with
    VMware Aria Operations for Logs
     is configured.
  • 1 - An exception error occurred. Examine the error message for details.
  • 61 - Integration with
    VMware Aria Operations for Logs
     is not configured. Examine the error message for details.
Example - check integration configuration
$ vracli vrli
No vRLI integration configured
 
$ vracli vrli
{
    "agentId": "0",
    "environment": "prod",
    "host": "my-vrli.local",
    "port": 9543,
    "scheme": "https",
    "sslVerify": false
}

Configure or update integration of
VMware Aria Operations for Logs

Command
vracli vrli set [options] FQDN_OR_URL
After you run the command, it can take up to 2 minutes for the logging agent to apply your specified configuration.
Arguments
  • FQDN_OR_URL
    Specifies the FQDN or URL address of the
    VMware Aria Operations for Logs
     server to use for posting logs. Port 9543 and https are used by default. If any of these settings must be changed, you can use a URL instead. 
    vracli vrli set <options> https://FQDN:9543
    You can set a different host scheme (the default is HTTPS) and port (default for https is 9543, default for http is 9000) to use for sending the logs, as shown in the following samples: 
    vracli vrli set https://HOSTNAME:9543
vracli vrli set --insecure HOSTNAME
vracli vrli set http://HOSTNAME:9000
    Ports 9543 for https and 9000 for http are used by the
    VMware Aria Operations for Logs
     ingestion REST API as described in the
    Administering
    VMware Aria Operations for Logs
     topic
    Ports and External Interfaces
     in
    VMware Aria Operations for Logs
    documentation.
  • Options
    • --agent-id SOME_ID
      Sets the id of the logging agent for this appliance. The default is
      0
      . Used to identify the agent when posting logs to
      VMware Aria Operations for Logs
       by using the
      VMware Aria Operations for Logs
       REST API.
    • --environment ENV
      Sets an identifier for the current environment. It will be available in
      VMware Aria Operations for Logs
       logs as a tag for each log entry. The default is
      prod
      .
    • --ca-file /path/to/server-ca.crt
      Specifies a file that contains the certificate of the certificate authority (CA) that was used to sign the certificate of the
      VMware Aria Operations for Logs
       server. This forces the logging agent to trust the specified CA and enable it to verify the certificate of the
      VMware Aria Operations for Logs
       server if it was signed by an untrusted authority. The file may contain a whole certificate chain to verify the certificate. In the case of a self-signed certificate, pass the certificate itself.
    • --ca-cert CA_CERT
      Definition is identical to that of --ca-file as above, but instead passes the certificate (chain) inline as string.
    • --insecure
      Deactivates SSL verification of the server certificate. This forces the logging agent to accept any SSL certificate when posting logs.
  • Advanced options
    • --request-max-size BYTES
      Multiple log events are ingested with a single API call. This argument controls the maximum payload size, in bytes, for each request. Valid values are between 4000 and 4000000. The default value is 256000. For related information for allowed values, see
      VMware Aria Operations for Logs
       events ingestion in the
      VMware Aria Operations for Logs
       REST API documentation. Setting this value too low can cause logging events that are larger than the allowed size to be dropped.
    • --request-timeout SECONDS
      A call to the API can hang for a number of reasons including problems with the remote, networking issues,and so on. This parameter controls the number of seconds wait for each operation to complete, such as opening a connection, writing data, or awaiting a response, before the call is recognized as failed. The value cannot be less than 1 second. The default is 30.
    • --request-immediate-retries RETRIES
      Logs are buffered in aggregated chunks before they are sent to
      VMware Aria Operations for Logs
       (see --buffer-flush-thread-count below). If an API request fails, the log is retried immediately. The default number of immediate retries is 3. If none of the retries is successful, then the whole log chunk is rolled back and is retried again later.
    • --request-http-compress
      To lower network traffic volumes, you can apply gzip compression to requests that are sent to the
      VMware Aria Operations for Logs
       server. If this parameter is not specified, no compression is used.
    • --buffer-flush-thread-count THREADS
      For better performance and to limit networking traffic, logs are buffered locally in chunks before they are flushed and sent to the log server. Each chunk contains logs from a single service. Depending on your environment, chunks can grow large and time-consuming to flush. This argument controls the number of chunks that can be flushed simultaneously. The default is 2.
When configuring integration over https, if the
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
 server is configured to use an untrusted certificate such as a self-signed certificate or a certificate that was signed by an untrusted authority, you must use one of the
--ca-file
,
--ca-cert
 or
--insecure
 options or the logging agent fails to validate the server identity and does not send logs. When using
--ca-file
 or
--ca-cert
, the
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
 server certificate must be valid for the server's host name. In all cases, verify the integration by allowing a few minutes for processing and then checking that
VMware Aria Operations for Logs
 received the logs.
Output
No output is expected.
Exit codes
The following exit codes are possible:
  • 0 - The configuration was updated.
  • 1 - An exception occurred as part of the execution. Examine the error message for details.
Examples - Configure or update integration configuration
The following example statements are shown in separate command lines, however the arguments can be combined in a single command line. For example, you can include multiple arguments when using
vracli vrli set {
somehost
}
 or
vracli vrli set --ca-file path/to/server-ca.crt
 to modify the default agent ID or environment values. For related information, see the online command help at
vracli vrli --help
.
$ vracli vrli set my-vrli.local 
$ vracli vrli set 10.20.30.40
$ vracli vrli set --ca-file /etc/ssl/certs/ca.crt 10.20.30.40
$ vracli vrli set --ca-cert "$(cat /etc/ssl/certs/ca.crt)" 10.20.30.40
$ vracli vrli set --insecure http://my-vrli.local:8080
$ vracli vrli set --agent-id my-vrli-agent my-vrli.local
$ vracli vrli set --request-http-compress
$ vracli vrli set --environment staging my-vrli.local
$ vracli vrli set --environment staging --request-max-size 10000 --request-timeout 120 --request-immediate-retries 5 --buffer-flush-thread-count 4 my-vrli.local

Clear integration of
VMware Aria Operations for Logs

Command
vracli vrli unset
After you run the command, it can take up to 2 minutes for the logging agent to apply your specified configuration.
Arguments
There are no command line arguments.
Output
Confirmation is output in plain text format.
Exit codes
The following exit codes are available:
  • 0 - The configuration was cleared or no configuration existed.
  • 1 - An exception occurred as part of the execution. Examine the error message for details.
Examples - Clear integration
$ vracli vrli unset
Clearing vRLI integration configuration
 
$ vracli vrli unset
No vRLI integration configured

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