I wanted to check out our syslog deamon to make sure it is working. You can use the command 'logger' to send a message and the syslogd will pick it up and put it in a file (or sends it to a syslog server) as stated in the '/etc/syslog.conf' file.

If you look at all the processes on your service console ('ps -ef') there should be a process running called '/usr/sbin/vmklogger'. This one monitors the VMkernel messages and sends it to local6 on the system (service console). According to '/etc/syslog.conf' the local6 messages are put to '/var/log/vmkernel', '/var/log/vmkwarning' and '/var/log/vmksummary'. You can use the command 'logger' to send a message to local6 like this:

logger -p local6.warning This is a dummy warning

Now this should put a message in '/var/log/vmkernel' and '/var/log/vmkwarning'. Using this method you can check your '/etc/syslog.conf' and see if it sends messages to a syslog server (or to your local log files). You can have different levels of log messages, like warning, notice, info, panic. They have a priority order: debug, info, notice, warning, error, critical, alert, emergency. The higher the priority, the more severe it is for your environment... Let's hope you never get an emergency message .

For mor info, check the manual pages:

• man syslogd
• man logger