vNinja.net poses the challenging question “Why Can’t I Syslog my VMware ESXi Installation?”
Since ESXi supports, and actively encourages, the use of an external Syslog service for log file safekeeping and monitoring, shouldn’t the installation logs for ESXi also be logged externally if configured?
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I was very surprised to see that there is no option to configure syslogging until after the installation is finished and the host configuration script(s) runs (ks.cfg).
By using a ks.cfg script you can automatically configure syslog settings, but since that happens after the installation is done, and the host is potentially rebooted, the installation logs are lost (ESXi logs are not persistent by default) unless you run something that copies them over to another location before the reboot happens.
Philosophically this reminds me of what Sartre wrote in Existentialism and Humanism
What do we mean by saying existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world — and defines himself afterwards.
In other words it takes an external force to enable a remote log configuration at a point earlier than a system itself has any awareness. An upgrade is an easier situation to address, since the system is already aware of itself. A first build, however, at the early stages with few bits in place begs the question of when installation really begins. Before a system exists it will not be able to log remotely.
Nice take on my post, but the thing is that since you can install ESXi based on a ks.cfg file located on the network, the networking bits required to start the logging on a remote host is already in place very, very early in the installation process. And, since it has local logging running, the ESXi Installer could kick off the syslog process as soon as network connectivity is in place.