I had an issue with the vpxd failing to initialize (vpxd service started succesfully), and found that there was a message in the var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxd.log that it was unable to open the file var/log/vmware/journal/1414758110.0.lck - no such file exists. I looked in the location and a directory of that name had been created. Once I removed this directory and restarted the vpxd service I got back my vCenter server and was able to log in using both the vsphere client and web client. I have not seen anyone mention this error in their logs posted - but this resolved the service failing to initialise issue on my setup. I am on ESXi 5.5 with a Single vCenter and 3 hosts