Using the SoS Utility on VMware Cloud Builder
VMware Cloud Builder
You can run the Supportability and Serviceability (SoS) Utility on the
VMware Cloud Builder appliance
to generate a support bundle, which you can use to help debug a failed bring-up of VMware Cloud Foundation
. After a successful bring-up, you should only run the SoS Utility on the
SDDC Manager appliance
. See Supportability and Serviceability (SoS) Utility in the VMware Cloud Foundation Administration Guide
. The SoS Utility is not a debug tool, but it does provide health check operations that can facilitate debugging a failed deployment.
To run the SoS Utility in
VMware Cloud Builder
, SSH in to the VMware Cloud Builder appliance
using the admin
administrative account, then enter su
to switch to the root user, and navigate to the /opt/vmware/sddc-support
directory and type ./sos
followed by the options required for your desired operation. ./sos --option-1--option-2... --option-n
SoS Utility Help Options
Use these options to see information about the SoS tool itself.
Option | Description |
|---|---|
--help -h | Provides a summary of the available SoS tool options |
--version -v | Provides the SoS tool's version number. |
SoS Utility Generic Options
These are generic options for the SoS Utility.
Option | Description |
|---|---|
--configure-sftp | Configures SFTP for logs. |
--debug-mode | Runs the SoS tool in debug mode. |
--force | Allows SoS operations from the VMware Cloud Builder appliance after bring-up.
In most cases, you should not use this option. Once bring-up is complete, you can run the SoS Utility directly from the SDDC Manager appliance . |
--history | Displays the last twenty SoS operations performed. |
--log-dir LOGDIR | Specifies the directory to store the logs. |
--log-folder LOGFOLDER | Specifies the name of the log directory. |
--setup-json SETUP_JSON | Custom setup-json file for log collection. setup.json file and pass the file as input to SoS. A sample JSON file is available on the VMware Cloud Builder in the /opt/vmware/sddc-support/ directory. |
--skip-known-host-check | Skips the specified check for SSL thumbprint for host in the known host. |
--zip | Creates a zipped tar file for the output. |
SoS Utility Log File Options
Option | Description |
|---|---|
--api-logs | Collects output from APIs. |
--cloud-builder-logs | Collects Cloud Builder logs. |
--esx-logs | Collects logs from the ESXi hosts only. Logs are collected from each ESXi host available in the deployment. |
--no-clean-old-logs | Use this option to prevent the tool from removing any output from a previous collection run. By default, before writing the output to the directory, the tool deletes the prior run's output files that might be present. If you want to retain the older output files, specify this option. |
--no-health-check | Skips the health check executed as part of log collection. |
--nsx-logs | Collects logs from the NSX Manager instances only. |
--rvc-logs | Collects logs from the Ruby vSphere Console (RVC) only. RVC is an interface for ESXi and vCenter. If the Bash shell is not enabled in vCenter, RVC log collection will be skipped . RVC logs are not collected by default with ./sos log collection. |
--sddc-manager-logs | Collects logs from the SDDC
Manager only. |
--test | Collects test logs by verifying the files. |
--vc-logs | Collects logs from the vCenter Server instances only. Logs are collected from each vCenter server available in the deployment. |
--vm-screenshots | Collects screen shots from all VMs. |
SoS Utility JSON Generator Options
The JSON generator options within the SoS Utility provide a method to execute the creation of the JSON file from a completed deployment parameter workbook. To run the JSON generator, you must provide, as a minimum, a path to the deployment parameter workbook and the design type using the following syntax:
./sos --jsongenerator --jsongenerator-inputJSONGENERATORINPUT--jsongenerator-designJSONGENERATORDESIGN
Option | Description |
|---|---|
--jsongenerator | Invokes the JSON generator utility. |
--jsongenerator-input JSONGENERATORINPUT | Specify the path to the input file to be used by the JSON generator utility. For example: /tmp/vcf-ems-deployment-parameter.xlsx . |
--jsongenerator-design JSONGENERATORDESIGN | Use vcf-vxrail for VMware
Cloud Foundation on Dell VxRail. |
--jsongenerator-supress | Supress confirmation to force cleanup directory. (optional) |
--jsongenerator-logs JSONGENERATORLOGS | Set the directory to be used for logs. (optional) |
SoS Utility Health Check Options
The SoS Utility can be used to perform health checks on various components or services, including connectivity, compute, and storage.
The health check options are primarily designed to run on the
SDDC Manager appliance
. Running them on the VMware Cloud Builder appliance
requires the --force
parameter, which instructs the SoS Utility to identify the SDDC Manager appliance
deployed by VMware Cloud Builder
during the bring-up process, and then execute the health check remotely. For example:
./sos --health-check --force
Option | Description |
|---|---|
--certificate-health | Verifies that the component certificates are valid (within the expiry date). |
--connectivity-health | Performs a connectivity health check to inspect whether the different components of the system such as the ESXi hosts, vCenter Servers, NSX Manager VMs, and SDDC Manager VM can be pinged. |
--compute-health | Performs a compute health check. |
--general-health | Verifies ESXi entries across all sources, checks the Postgres DB operational status for hosts, checks ESXi for error dumps, and gets NSX Manager and cluster status. |
--get-host-ips | Returns server information. |
--health-check | Performs all available health checks. |
--ntp-health | Verifies whether the time on the components is synchronized with the NTP server in the VMware Cloud Builder appliance . |
--services-health | Performs a services health check to confirm whether services are running |
--run-vsan-checks | Runs proactive vSAN tests to verify the ability to create VMs within the vSAN disks. |
Sample Output
The following text is a sample output from an
--ntp-health
operation. root@cloud-builder [ /opt/vmware/sddc-support ]# ./sos --ntp-health --skip-known-host --force Welcome to Supportability and Serviceability(SoS) utility! User passed --force flag, Running SOS from Cloud Builder VM, although Bringup is completed and SDDC Manager is available. Please expe ct failures with SoS operations. Health Check : /var/log/vmware/vcf/sddc-support/healthcheck-2020-02-11-23-03-53-24681 Health Check log : /var/log/vmware/vcf/sddc-support/healthcheck-2020-02-11-23-03-53-24681/sos.log SDDC Manager : sddc-manager.vrack.vsphere.local NTP : GREEN +-----+-----------------------------------------+------------+-------+ | SL# | Area | Title | State | +-----+-----------------------------------------+------------+-------+ | 1 | ESXi : esxi-1.vrack.vsphere.local | ESX Time | GREEN | | 2 | ESXi : esxi-2.vrack.vsphere.local | ESX Time | GREEN | | 3 | ESXi : esxi-3.vrack.vsphere.local | ESX Time | GREEN | | 4 | ESXi : esxi-4.vrack.vsphere.local | ESX Time | GREEN | | 5 | vCenter : vcenter-1.vrack.vsphere.local | NTP Status | GREEN | +-----+-----------------------------------------+------------+-------+ Legend: GREEN - No attention required, health status is NORMAL YELLOW - May require attention, health status is WARNING RED - Requires immediate attention, health status is CRITICAL Health Check completed successfully for : [NTP-CHECK]
The following text is sample output from a
--vm-screenshots
log collection operation. root@cloud-builder [ /opt/vmware/sddc-support ]# ./sos --vm-screenshots --skip-known-host --force Welcome to Supportability and Serviceability(SoS) utility! User passed --force flag, Running SOS from Cloud Builder VM, although Bringup is completed and SDDC Manager is available. Please expect failures with SoS operations. Logs : /var/log/vmware/vcf/sddc-support/sos-2018-08-24-10-50-20-8013 Log file : /var/log/vmware/vcf/sddc-support/sos-2018-08-24-10-50-20-8013/sos.log Log Collection completed successfully for : [VMS_SCREENSHOT]