First spot I would check is communication to the VC database - also on your vc server there is a file called vpx.log - this will contain vc specific log entries -

VC service does not start (most likely a dB/ODBC problem), there are a few things you can do:

1. Check the Event viewer on the VC server (check for ID 1000)

2. You will need to check the vpxd-#.log

3. Check your SQL dB and ODBC connection to your SQL dB

maybe this KB will help

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003926

Check event log and make sure DEP is turned off.  That could be causing the service to not start properly.

-KjB

I have been advised by vmware that the fix for this is to upgrade to VC 2.5 u2.

Lee Richardson

seems like the problem ...I have been experiencing also. Virtual Center just decided to die(stop working)///service would not work.

When I try to manually start it. I get this error: windows could not start the vmware vitualCenter server on Local computer. For more information, review the system event log. If this is a non-microsoft service, contact the service vendor, and refer to service-specific error code 2.

Most of my messages appear on this thread:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1024259#1024259

I also tried changing the the odbc connection to named pipes / window authentication and every combination their of.....hmmmm very discouraging.

I will attempt to download this upgrade....but I hear from VMWARE that this version has a bug(2.5 U2) in it and the patch may or may not be released as of 2008-08-14.

Thanks,

Doug Lubey of Louisiana

http://www.douglubey.com/

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OK-UPDATE and fixed at 7:16pm on 8/14/2008

VMWARE VIRTUAL CENTER UPDATE 2 (2.5 Update 2 - 7/25/2008) build 104263 seemed to fix the problem. This version also upgraded the database(in other words I choose not to overwrite the old database) and it seemed to work just fine. So after 3 hours of research and trying to use the reinstall using the current version I had previously downloaded. This new update did the trick.

==================================================================

OK-UPDATE 2008-08-15 at 9:00am in Louisiana

To NOTE: Virtual Center (Virtual Infrastructure) does not have a bug in the latest version on the downloads page(version 2.5 U2) the bug is in the ESX hosts. The bug was reported in the ESX version 3.5-U2-103908. And Yes I have this version which I will be patching over the weekend....whether the problem I recieved in the Virtual Center is related, I do not know....but it was quite a coincidence. Any how, the direct problem that I was experiencing with virtual center is now corrected(to note: make sure you choose to upgrade the Virtual Center Database(not overwrite) and the whole process takes 15 minutes. I am not going to try and VMOTION or anything else until the faulty ESX box (which has 3.5-U2-103908 installed) has the patches applied.

Unfortuntely even though the VC is back online I still cannot migrate any running vms which prevents me from carrying out the fixes. Anyone any ideas?

Lee Richardson