VMWare Virtual Center Server won't start after Windows Update

[netlib]

Help!  I am running vCenter 5.1 on Windows 2008 R2 with SQL Server Standard 2008 R2.  I applied the most recent Windows Updates (critical only) as well as applied SQL 2008 R2 SP3.

Now the vCenter Service won't start.  It generates Error 7024 in the Windows System Log:

   The VMware VirtualCenter Server service terminated with service-specific error The system cannot find the file specified..

and Error 1000 in the Windows Application Log:

     Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down...

PS - I confirmed that the SQL instance is running.

Absolutely nothing else was done except the Windows and SQL updates.  Everything worked fine up until that point.  One KB article discusses an "out of space" condition, but there is plenty of disk space available.

I have attached the vpxd.log file it created.

Any clues?

Thanks.

[SavkoorSuhas]

Hello

I had the same issue.

My solution:

Restart all the vCenter Services in an orderly fashion. The order is

1. VMware Directory Service

2. VMware Kdc Service

3. VMware Certificate Service

4. VMware Identity Management Service

5. VMware Secure Token Service

6. VMware vCenter Inventory Service

7. VMware vCenter Server

Suhas

[SavkoorSuhas]

My bad. I am quite not sure what the order is for 5.1 as services are different. Let me look at the log bundles.

PS. I was running a 5.5 vCenter during the Windows Update.

Suhas

[netlib · Accepted solution]

Ok it turns out that the WWW service was interfering with vCenter Service on Port 80.  The thing is that the WWW service was set to manual start.  Somehow during the Windows and/or SQL upgrade, one of them decided to turn it back to auto start. After reboot, the conflict occurred.  Once I set WWW service back to manual start the vCenter service started OK.

[netlib]

@SavkoorSuhas, thanks for taking the time to look into it. I posted what actually happened in my case.