How-to do a tcpdump on vCenter Server Appliance?

I was doing some troubleshooting around the new Platform Services Controller (PSC) in HA mode in vSphere 6 and I needed to validate session persistence across PSC nodes. Nothing is better than using tcpdump to check network traffic coming in and out from both nodes.

mynewshinyvcsa6:~ # tcpdump
bash: tcpdump: command not found

What? What do you mean by “command not found”? :)

In fact, tcpdump and netcat are present but not installed by default (for security reasons). You can install them on vCSA 6 by running:

mynewshinyvcsa6:~ # /etc/vmware/gss-support/install.sh
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:tcpdump                ########################################### [ 50%]
   2:netcat                 ########################################### [100%]

There you go!

FYI, the command to install tcpdump on vCSA 5.5 is a bit different:

myproductionvcsa55:~ # /etc/gss_support/install.sh
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:tcpdump                ########################################### [100%]

If you’re not familiar with tcpdump syntax, you can always check the manpage. :)