Virtual machines (VMs) must configure log retention.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258719	VMCH-80-000206	SV-258719r959010_rule		Medium

Description
The ESXi hypervisor maintains logs for each individual VM by default. These logs contain information including but not limited to power events, system failure information, tools status and activity, time sync, virtual hardware changes, vMotion migrations, and machine clones. By default, 10 of these logs are retained. This is normally sufficient for most environments, but this configuration must be verified and maintained.

Description

The ESXi hypervisor maintains logs for each individual VM by default. These logs contain information including but not limited to power events, system failure information, tools status and activity, time sync, virtual hardware changes, vMotion migrations, and machine clones. By default, 10 of these logs are retained. This is normally sufficient for most environments, but this configuration must be verified and maintained.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 8.0 Virtual Machine Security Technical Implementation Guide	2024-07-11

Details

Check Text ( C-62459r933216_chk )
For each virtual machine do the following: From the vSphere Client, right-click the Virtual Machine and go to Edit Settings >> Advanced Parameters. Verify the "log.keepOld" value is set to "10". or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host or vCenter server, run the following command: Get-VM "VM Name" \| Get-AdvancedSetting -Name log.keepOld If the virtual machine advanced setting "log.keepOld" is not set to "10", this is a finding. If the virtual machine advanced setting "log.keepOld" does NOT exist, this is NOT a finding.

Check Text ( C-62459r933216_chk )

For each virtual machine do the following:

From the vSphere Client, right-click the Virtual Machine and go to Edit Settings >> Advanced Parameters.

Verify the "log.keepOld" value is set to "10".

or

From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host or vCenter server, run the following command:

Get-VM "VM Name" | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name log.keepOld

If the virtual machine advanced setting "log.keepOld" is not set to "10", this is a finding.

If the virtual machine advanced setting "log.keepOld" does NOT exist, this is NOT a finding.

Fix Text (F-62368r933217_fix)
For each virtual machine do the following: From the vSphere Client, right-click the Virtual Machine and go to Edit Settings >> Advanced Parameters. Find the "log.keepOld" value and set it to "10". If the setting does not exist no action is needed. or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host or vCenter server, run the following command: Get-VM "VM Name" \| Get-AdvancedSetting -Name log.keepOld \| Set-AdvancedSetting -Value 10 Note: The VM must be powered off to configure the advanced settings through the vSphere Client. Therefore, it is recommended to configure these settings with PowerCLI as this can be done while the VM is powered on. Settings do not take effect via either method until the virtual machine is cold started, not rebooted.

Fix Text (F-62368r933217_fix)

For each virtual machine do the following:

From the vSphere Client, right-click the Virtual Machine and go to Edit Settings >> Advanced Parameters.

Find the "log.keepOld" value and set it to "10".

If the setting does not exist no action is needed.

or

From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host or vCenter server, run the following command:

Get-VM "VM Name" | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name log.keepOld | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value 10

Note: The VM must be powered off to configure the advanced settings through the vSphere Client. Therefore, it is recommended to configure these settings with PowerCLI as this can be done while the VM is powered on. Settings do not take effect via either method until the virtual machine is cold started, not rebooted.