Uploading logs to VAST via VMS Auto Upload

Summary

Sometimes you need to send data to VAST for troubleshooting. This data may be in the form of ad-hoc files or traces we've requested, or it may be in the form of a generated support bundle that you create using the VMS. One method to achieve that is to use the VMS Auto Upload log feature.

Uploading Logs

If you know the ticket number that the files are uploaded to, please include it in the file name in the format Case-<Ticket Number>; for example, if your original file is tcpdumps.tgz and your ticket number is 12345, rename it to be Case-12345-tcpdumps.tgz

Authentication

The above feature is based on the VMS, and the extra_auto_upload is part of the call home and support bundle mechanism, so no additional authentication is required to configure the extra auto-upload.

Proxies

The above feature is based within the VMS; hence, if a Proxy is needed, you must configure it via the VMS GUI → Settings → Call Home → Proxy Setup.

Methods

Action plan to upload a file(s) to our buckets:

1. From any node in the system where we would like to upload a file, we need to manually create an extra folder with the name extra_auto_upload under the path /vast/bundles/

   1. Command to create this folder for all Nodes:

      clush -a "mkdir /vast/bundles/extra_auto_upload"

   2. Check that the directories were created:

      clush -a "ls /vast/bundles/ | grep extra_auto_upload"

   3. Put files into this folder /vast/bundles/extra_auto_upload, and the system will get it the next call home or support bundle.

2. When the upload process happens, the system moves the files from /vast/bundles/extra_auto_upload to /vast/bundles/extra_auto_upload.completed to prevent uploading the files in the next call home/bundle. (The system will create a new folder under /vast/bundles/extra_auto_upload.completed with the current time of the call home/support bundle)

Action plan to remove logs:

1. For each node, we created the log files, and we would need to delete them manually.

   1. The feature works that way, so we won't lose files.

   2. It’s all under a single directory under  /vast/bundles/extra_auto_upload.completed/, so it’s easy to remove with the following command:

      clush -a "sudo rm -rf /vast/bundles/extra_auto_upload.completed/"

   3. Checked that all the files were deleted from both directories:

      clush -a "ls /vast/bundles/extra_auto_upload | wc -l"
      clush -a "ls /vast/bundles/extra_auto_upload.completed | wc -l"

Key Notes and Limitations

1. Capacity - VAST strongly recommends not copying large/huge files into the extra_auto_upload directory because it can extend the overall time of the harvester process while collecting Callhome or support bundle logs. Rule of thumb: Always try to compress logs before moving them to extra_auto_upload.

2. Remove old data—As described above, the feature will not remove files but move them to the extra_auto_upload.completed directory.

3. Date and Time tracking - Once logs are uploaded, please update the VAST customer support team when files are collected.

4. extra_auto_upload.completed—Although the directory /vast/bundles/extra_auto_upload can be empty and there are no files to upload, the system still creates a new directory under /vast/bundles/extra_auto_upload.completed.