How to get serial output from a virtual firewall in VMware

Question:

I’m trying to log the serial console output from my virtual firewall in VMware, how can i accomplish this?

Answer:

There are a couple of ways to get serial output from a virtual firewall, The simplest is to send the output to a text file.

To do this in a VMware client, follow the steps below:

1. Make sure the virtual firewall is powered down.
2. Click "Edit virtual machine settings".
3. In the "Hardware" tab, click "Add...".
4. Select "Serial Port".
5. Select output to file (e.g. Console_output.txt) and click "Next".
6. Select an output file and then click "Finish".

Notes:
When the virtual firewall is powered up, you may get a message that the serial port output file already exists.
If you would like to start from a clean slate, click “Replace”.
If you would like the output to continue from where it left off, click “Append”.

Related articles