How to Configure the Esxi Dump Collector

This post walks you through the installation process of the dump collector. In this case, the dump collector is installed on the vcenter server. A core dump is the state of working memory in the event of a host failure. This feature is simply a must in the event of using auto deploy since your esxi servers will not be using a local disk. 

Step 1. Insert the vSphere 5 cd.

Step 2. Select the Dump Collector option and click on install.

Step 3. Select the language (english).

Step 4. Specify the location. In this case, select the vcenter server option.

Step 5. Enter the ip address of the vcenter server (or hostname) and provide the username and password of the administrator of the vcenter server for authentication.

Step 6. Click on install. The installation takes a couple of minutes.

Step 7. Launch the vsphere client and click on home. You will find a new icon on the home page.

Step 8. Putty into the esxi server.

Step 9. Type esxcli system coredump network get to see if this featured is enabled or not. This feature is disabled by default.

Step 10. Type esxcli system coredump network set --interface-name vmk1 --server-ipv4 ip_of_vcenter --server-port 6500 to specify who the dump collector is.

Step 11. Type esxcli system coredump network set --enable true to enable this feature.

Step 12. Type esxcli system coredump network get to verify the entered settings.