vSphere 6.7 is not starting.

[KyleManel]

I have two vCenter/vSphere servers, one is operating as expected, another one is not displaying the web-gui after a power down of the host ESXi server for scheduled maintenance.

On review of the console for the non-operating vsphere, it displays the appropriate log in screen with the vsphere and vcenter urls on the console, neither of which are functional.
I can log into the Photon 1.0 cli for the server after restarting it, but I am not sure what to look for nor how to repair it.

[RickVerstegen]

Can you provide a screenshot of the issue?

Also check if the VMware services are running on vcenter by using command service-control --status.

[KyleManel]

A screen-shot of an unreachable web-page is irrelevant to provide in support, as those are identical on all platforms and dependent on browser;

All you would get from it is what browser I use; Firefox, Chrome or Edge for the record.

~ The issue I described is that my vcenter/vsphere server is not displaying the web-gui.  Without a GUI, I fail to see what relevant information a screen capture will provide.

Regarding CLI, I do have access that, but as I specified, I have no idea what I am looking for, so any screen captures here would be dumb-luck.

[KyleManel]

​As for the command you requested;

user@vcenter [ ~ ]# service-control --status

Running:

lwsmd vmafdd vmcad vmdird vmdnsd vmonapi vmware-analytics vmware-cm vmware-eam vmware-pod vmware-postgres-archiver vmwarerhttpproxy vmware-sts-idmd vmware-stsd vmware-vmon vmware-vpostgres
Stopped:

  applmgmt pschealth vmcam vmware-content-library vmware-imagebuilder vmware-mbcs vmware-netdumper vmware perfcharts vmware rbd watchdog vmware sps vmware updatemgr vmware vcha vmware upxd vmware upxd svcs vmware vsan health vmware vsm vsan dps

StartPending:

vmware-cis-license vmware-sca vmware-statsmonitor vmware-vapi-endpoint vsphere-client vsphere-ui

user@vcenter [ ~ ]#

[KyleManel]

I'd like to mention, with regards to your first request, that this forum does not allow bmp files to be uploaded, which seems peculiar, as a monochrome bmp requires very little capacity, and seems ideal for a number of situations.

[RickVerstegen]

Can you stop and start these from CLI:

vmware-cis-license vmware-sca vmware-statsmonitor vmware-vapi-endpoint vsphere-client vsphere-ui.

vsphere-client is the vsphere web client

vsphere-ui is the vsphere client.

service-control --stop vsphere-client

service-control --start vsphere-client

[KyleManel]

I can, although I've been doing that all day to enter the cli, as the server times-out and immediately goes into the vsphere cli/gui, which I am presently restarting the server to re-enter the cli.

Tips on how to enter and/or remain in the cli would be valuable to me.

I will have results for you in a minute or two.

[KyleManel]

I got through the service-stops before the console timed-out and I couldn't verify if the script completed the service-starts successfully, so a command to stop the cli from timing out would be valuable to me, though I will be enabling ssh on the server this evening, that is a recognized vulnerability.

In any case, I have little reason to believe the commands failed, and the server is not operating as yet.

[KyleManel]

The following commands were run successfully on all counts on the vCenter server in the photon OS as root;

service-control --stop vmware-cis-license \

&& service-control --start vmware-cis-license \

&& service-control --stop vmware-sca \

&& service-control --start vmware-sca \

&& service-control --stop vmware-statsmonitor \

&& service-control --start vmware-statsmonitor \

&& service-control --stop vmware-vapi-endpoint \

&& service-control --start vmware-vapi-endpoint \

&& service-control --stop vsphere-client \

&& service-control --start vsphere-client \

&& service-control --stop vsphere-ui \

&& service-control --start vsphere-ui

The web-gui is still not provided at the server address.

[KyleManel]

I would very much like to know how to disable the time-out from shell to the dcui though.  That would save me a great deal of time reviewing configurations.

[KyleManel]

OR finding how to troubleshoot SSH configuration from cli on this server would be useful as well, as the esxi server is not responding to my ssh client.

[RickVerstegen]

1. From the Direct Console User Interface, press F2 to access the System Customization menu.

2. Click Troubleshooting Mode Options.

3. Modify ESXi Shell and SSH timeouts and press Enter.

4. Enter the timeout in minutes.

5. Press Enter.

[KyleManel]

The DCUI does not have any options aside from Disable/Enable for SSH, It appears as though a timer was implemented for the DCUI such that if the console is left inactive, in whatever state it may be in; The DCUI itself OR the CLI, it terminates the session and returns to the vCenter default/logged out display.

I'm very familiar/comfortable with operating at the CLI level though, so commands to better understand what happened and how to resolve it are definitely welcome.

Are there any log files I can provide, or configurations to look into which can help us find the cause for the issue with the web gui?  Perhaps a service isn't running that should be, or a file was mishandled in an operation?

[KyleManel]

A big frustrations with maintaining this server from CLI however is that it logs out of the CLI and into the DCUI after a set period of time, regardless of activity;

This is something I need to reconfigure from CLI, as the web gui is not available.
I've identified the $TMOUT variable, but cannot determine if it is the source of this issue, nor a way to alter it.

[KyleManel · Accepted solution]

OK, so I've resolved the logout issue I had previously while connecting to the console, and I've restored responsiveness to the webgui.  There was a glitch in the networking config on the host esxi server which needed to be resolved.

Thanks for the help RickVerstegen​