Unable to connect to the vCenter server 5.5

[Vikramaditya_J]

Hello Community!

I have an old vCenter server environment which is running on vCenter appliance version 5.5 (SuSe Linux based appliance). I am planning to migrate all its VMs to my new vCenter setup which is version 6.7. However, when I try to connect to the vCenter server 5.5 using VMware Vi-client 5.5, I get following error:

The request failed because remote server took too long to respond. Call ServiceInstance.RetrieveContent for object "10.x.x.x" "ServiceInstance" on server failed.

- I can ping the vCenter server from my local server.

- I can connect to vCenter server appliance (v5.5) from Web.

- I can connect to all individual ESXi hosts from Vi-client.

- But I cannot connect to the vCenter server (v5.5) from Vi-client.

- I tried to connect to the vCenter server from Web-client, but got flash player error, which I tried to fix but didn't work at all.

I need your expertise to help and fix this.

Thank you.

[sraghavendrar]

Hi,

Were you able to follow KB - https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/78589 to connect to Flash?

-Supreeth

[Ajay1988]

Use old   version of   chrome or use IE   11 which comes with inbuilt flash(just have to enable a windows feature)

[a_p_]

Such an issue can as well be related to the host OS on which you are running the client. What may be worth a try, is to install e.g. the vSphere Client 6.0 U3 (in addition to the 5.5 client) on your PC, which will update some commonly used files. Maybe this helps to make the vSphere Client 5.5 work!?

André

[Vikramaditya_J]

Thanks for your answer.

I tried with Vi client 6.0 (U3), but still cannot connect to the vCenter (Refer attached screenshot).

[Vikramaditya_J]

Thank for your reply. 

I tried it, but the browser throws flash player failed image and redirects to adobe flash player EOL page.

[Vikramaditya_J]

Update:

I am getting following error:-

vSphere client couldn't connect to "10.x.x.x". An unknown connection error occurred. The request failed because remote server took too long to respond (The operation has timed out.)

- I changed the Client Timeout to 60 sec (and even more) and also tried to update registry timeout entry, but still same error.

- I can successfully connect to the ESXi hosts (which are managed by that vCenter server) from the same Vi-client.

- DNS records are not available for ESXi hosts or vCenter server i.e. I can connect using IP addresses only, not hostnames.

- I restarted vpxd service on the vCenter server, but no luck.

I suspect that the issue could be related to some blocked ports or services on the vCenter server. Please advise if you have any clue to fix it.

[Ajay1988]

Port 443 is only needed to connect .

Check if all services are up ---service –-status-all

grab the  last vpxd.log 

Better to move to 6.5 or later ( as earlier versions are no more supported)