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VMware has a lot of products that compose the SDDC stack. Out of all of them — after the foundational ESXi — vRealize Log Insight had become my absolute favorite product. It is one of the first things I deploy inside any new environment, as soon as vCenter Server is online and sometimes before. It’s ability to parse, collect and search log messages throughout the stack, while providing easy-to-use dashboards make it so much more powerful than some of its competitors.

Steve Flanders blogs about several VMware-related topics, and the Log Insight posts are the highlight of his site. Oftentimes his site is my first stop when I have a question — even before the documentation.

Steve has a quick reference for his Log Insight posts, which can be found here.

The power of Log Insight can easily be realized within any environment and becomes even more powerful with the installation of the Content Packs. Content Packs can be downloaded through the UI interface directly and include components for both VMware products and industry products.

Some of the Content Packs I find myself relying on include:

  • VMware NSX
  • OpenStack
  • Synology (for the home lab users out there)
  • Nginx
  • vRealize Operations

There are dozens more and it is possible to even write your own content packs. The VMware Developer Center provides information on how to do so.

If you are thinking about using Log Insight or just looking for new information to learn how to better utilize it in your environment, I highly encourage you head over to SFlanders.net and check out all the resources there. Also give Steve a follow over on Twitter.

Enjoy!