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gfellerj12
Contributor
Contributor

VMware virtualcenter server service won't start when backup DC is down

Hello,

I have a weird issue where if my backup Domain controller goes down for whatever reason VMware Vcenter server service will not start as it is only pointing to the backup DC for logins and not to the primary. 

In the event viewer it shows

The group account "domain"\Domain admins could not be successfully resolved.  Please check network connectivity to domain controllers.  So is there anyway to point this to the Primary domain controller instead of the secondary? 

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6 Replies
admin
Immortal
Immortal

Which version of vCenter Server are you using? If it is 5.1 you can log into the Webclient with the admin@system-domain user and edit the identity source accordingly as described in the documentation below.

VMware vSphere 5.1

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gfellerj12
Contributor
Contributor

sorry i didn't realize this had been replied too.

This gets me in the right place and I see the issue that my backup domain controller is set as the primary URL.  When I switch it to the Primary domain controller I get an error at the top that says "GSSAPI".

Any thoughts on this?

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Is the secondary down right now? Is the connection string using ldap or ldaps? With ldaps you need to provide the correct SSL certificate before changing the domain controllers.

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animesh41
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

You may try to delete all the identity sources for your primary and secondary domain controller, and then add a fresh entry with the primary domain controller and check if that works  ...

VCIX-NV | VCAP 3x | AWS-SAA | TOGAF | vExpert
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gfellerj12
Contributor
Contributor

The secondary is back up but to be honest it is a much older box that I have much less faith in so I really want it to point to my PDC.  It is using regular LDAP.  no certificates

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gfellerj12
Contributor
Contributor

I will give that a try and get back to you. 

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