VMware VCF and vSphere Diagnostic tool-VDT

VMware VDT- VCF Diagnostic Tool Overview

VDT (developed and built by VMware Support) is a utility designed to run a series of comprehensive checks live on a target appliance. In its current state, VDT supports the vCenter Server and SDDC Manager appliances.

The VCF Diagnostic Tool (VDT) is a diagnostic tool that is run directly on the SDDC Manager or vCenter server. It runs through a series of checks on the system configuration and reports user-friendly PASS/WARN/FAIL results for known configuration issues. It also provides information (INFO) messages from certain areas which we hope will make detecting inconsistencies easier. The goal of these tests is to provide live diagnostic information to the user about their environment which might otherwise be missed.  

This tool is completely read-only for the entire environment. hence, it will not make any changes to the environment and no risks to use it.

Another important thing about this tool that, it is completely offline and does not reach out to the Internet or any VMware depots for any information. Therefore, it is geared to be run in offline and air-gapped environments, making it a very useful tool for troubleshooting, considering it is often not possible to share logs or screen-share with VMware support.

How to use VCF-VDT on SDDC manager:-

1. Download the latest version of vSphere Diagnostic Tool from the below VMware KB.

     https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/94141

2. Use the file-moving utility of your choice (WinSCP for example) to copy the entire ZIP directory to the /home/vcf/ partition on the SDDC-Manager on which you wish to run it.

3. SSH into the SDDC-Manager and elevate to root with su.

4. Change your directory to the location of the file, and unpackage the vdt zip file:

       cd /home/vcf/

       unzip vdt-<version>.zip

       cd vdt-<version>

5. Run the tool with the command:

      python vdt.py -p sddc_manager

6. You will then be prompted for the administrator@vsphere.local password.

Note:If you are unable to provide the SSO password the script will only run checks that do not require authentication. 

The utility logs to the following directory on the SDDC-Manager.

/var/log/vmware/vcf/vdt/

How to use VDT on vCenter Server:-

1. Download the version of VDT 2.0 compatible with your vCenter version from below VMware KB article.

    

    https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/83896

2. Use the file-moving utility of your choice (WinSCP for example) to copy the entire ZIP directory to /root on the node on which you wish to run it.

  

3. Change your directory to the location of the file, and unpack the zip:

      cd /root/

      unzip vdt-version_number.zip

4.Run the tool with the command:

      python vdt.py

You will be prompted for the password for administrator@sso.domain. Many checks will still run even if credentials are not supplied.

Please send feedback/feature requests to vcf-gcs-sa-vdt.pdl@broadcom.com

Refer below KB articles for more info:

For VCF-https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/94141

For vSphere- https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/83896

DISCLAIMER: This script is currently in its beta release phase.

As such, it may contain bugs, errors, or incomplete features. Please leverage results with caution.