Unable to start VMWare VirtualCenter Server service.

[mountiedog]

I am currently running VirtualCenter 2.0 as a Windows 2003 Server Enterprise VM on a VMware Server box. VirtualCenter is configured to work with Oracle 10g which is running on a separate server (not virtual). Today we lost network connectivity to the Oracle server for about 15 seconds which caused the VMware VirtualCenter Server service to crash.

I was unable to start VMware VirtualCenter Server service even after the Oracle box and was back online and the ODBC test connection was successful. I rebooted the VM running VirtualCenter 2.0 but still was unable to start the service. I kept getting the following entry in the eventlog:

The description for Event ID ( 1000 ) in Source ( VMware VirtualCenter Server ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down....[/b]

In the end i had to reboot the Oracle box and then everything was fine.

Is there another way to resolve this issue without rebooting the Oracle server????

Thanks in advance.

[Andi65]

I had this Error after upgrading to ESX 3.5 / VC 2.5. Directly after the update (without a restart of the server) everything works fine. Then i did a restart of the machine (w2k3 german version) wich hosts the VC. Then the Error in the Eventlog is the following: "Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down...."

The vpxd-x.log says:

Log for VMware VirtualCenter, pid=3936, version=2.5.0, build=build-64192, option=Release, section=2

Current working directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32

HOSTINFO: Seeing Intel CPU, numCoresPerCPU 1 numThreadsPerCore 2.

HOSTINFO: numPhysCPUs is 0, bumping to 1.

HOSTINFO: numCores is 0, bumping to 1.

HOSTINFO: This machine has 1 physical CPUS, 1 total cores, and 1 logical CPUs.

Log path: C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\All Users\Anwendungsdaten\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

Initializing SSL

Using system libcrypto, version 90709F

Vmacore::InitSSL: doVersionCheck = true, handshakeTimeoutUs = 120000000

Starting VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.0 build-64192

Account name: SYSTEM

Enabled low-frag process heap.

Enabled low-frag crt heap.

34 max LROs

6 reserved internal LROs

6 reserved blocker LROs

6 reserved short LROs

4 reserved long LROs

600-second task lifetime

Couldn't read registry entry vmdbPort

Couldn't read registry entry managedIP

Invoking callbacks for key vpxd.npivWwnGeneration.singleNodeWwn

Invoking callbacks for key vpxd.npivWwnGeneration.portWwnNumber

Failed to initialize: not well-formed (invalid token)

Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down...

Forcing shutdown of VMware VirtualCenter now

I think its not a port-problem. Has anyone a hint how i can solve this problem?

Greetings Andi

[bludden]

I just wanted to pass along that I got this problem after the long holiday weekend, the service-specific error 2...but I could successfully connect to the VC database with the SQL user and all that so it was not a permissions issue.

After tracing back the errors to the first occurence, I found a Transaction Log full error so had do some SQL maintenance (well actually the DBA had to do it ) so check that as well for this error! Thanks to all for the interesting reading -

Brian

[lascer]

A friend of mine got a similar issue after upgrading ESX to 3.5, the VirtualCenter won't start. He told me that in their case it turned out that the service virtual center service on the windows server was configured to start as local system, after changing the logon credential of the virtual center service on windows server to admin he was able to get the virtual center to start.

[airborneric]

Believe it or not - I stopped the default web service and it started right up. Purely on a whim......weird.

[TomHowarth]

that is because VC uses TomCat and does not co-exist well with IIS, I would disable your IIS service so that you do not get the same issue on a reboot.

Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[pacorabane]

I have the same problem. i had rename my virtualcenter server, since i can't start the virtualcenter service. Inthe vpxd-xxx.log i see that it is a problem of connecting to database. I have a MSDE database.

[lalo_llanos]

I need help

I am currently running VirtualCenter 2.5 as a Windows 2003 Server Enterprise VM on a VMware Server boxI am currently running VirtualCenter 2.0 as a Windows 2003 Server Enterprise VM on a VMware Server box

The description for Event ID ( 1000 ) in Source ( VMware VirtualCenter Server ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down....

[SafetyMan]

Currently I created and started a maintenance job using the SQL 2000 (sp4) Database Maintenance Plan to see if the database is corrupt of not properly indexed.

The job does the following:

Integrity Checks/ Optimizations(reindexes the tables)/ Database Backup/Transaction Log Backup

I will see what happens .....

But here is the background information:

-

---

Windows 2003 Enterprise Server: Service Pack 2 v.4035

SQL SERVER 2000 version 8.00.2039 (SP4)

Virtual Center Installed from VMware-VIMSetup-2.5.0-64201

Virtual Center was at 2.0 until an upgrade in March 2008 to 2.5.0-64201

I have rebooted the VC several times since...but when I tried to log into it

just today(yes, yesterday it worked). Found out the service was not started

The server is hosted on it's own WorkGroup and the name has never changed, nor

has the ip addresses or really nothing at all.

-

---

SEARCH:

Vmware VirtualCenter Server does not start Event ID 1000

Vmware virtualCenter Server Event ID ( 1000 )

Vmware virtualCenter Server Event ID 1000

Vmware virtualCenter Server Event ID 1000 AUXSOURCE= flag

Event Type: Error

Event Source: VMware VirtualCenter Server

Event Category: None

Event ID: 1000

Date: 8/14/2008

Time: 4:13:32 PM

User: N/A

Computer: SCVMCENTER1

Description:

The description for Event ID ( 1000 ) in Source ( VMware VirtualCenter Server ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down....

==============================================================================================

One hit but not the answer for me.

our sql server is up to date (sql 2000 with SP4 and authentication works fine)

http://communities.vmware.com/message/457617#457617

==============================================================================================

another hit: check the log files,

Ok I check the logs files and also ran a backup on the database.

Our sql server as unlimited log files and the database files can grow to more than 20 gig

Currently it is at 278MB in size.

Right now space available is at 160 MB...

==============================================================================================

Another hit: the server was renamed. ( I did not rename the server)

==============================================================================================

Another hit: IIS or Reporting Services was also installed which caused the problem

(no I do not have IIS installed or any other web server installed beside apache)

==============================================================================================

ATTEMPTED: to user the local administrator account to start the service "VMWARE VirtualCenter Server" service

and it did not start. Same error message

reference:

Thanks,

Doug Lubey of Louisiana

www.douglubey.com

[SafetyMan]

After various attempts to use my previous install version and updates from March 2008....only the newest update worked. Things are back to normal...and I even did 2 reboots after it was installed to make sure the new installation and verison to stay...

****In other words...just install the this patch(w/o overwritting the database ...just upgrade it) and everything will be back to normal...By doing this you will save yourself 3 hours of research****

OK-UPDATE and fixed at 7:16pm on 8/14/2008

VMWARE VIRTUAL CENTER UPDATE 2 (2.5 Update 2 - 7/25/2008) build 104263 seemed to fix the problem. This version also upgraded the database(in other words I choose not to overwrite the old database) and it seemed to work just fine. So after 3 hours of research and trying to use the reinstall using the current version I had previously downloaded. This new update did the trick.

Again Error reference: The description for Event ID ( 1000 ) in Source ( VMware VirtualCenter Server ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down....

Doug Lubey of Louisiana

Another related thread I posted to is located here:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1024596

[rgv75]

I just want to pitch in. I had the same problem whereby I was getting Error 2 when trying to start the Vmware VirtualCenter Service and I get a "Failed to initialize: not well-formed" error in the log. I updated to VC 2.5 Update 2 as well and that fixed my problem. I reinstalled VC three times and it didn't fix it, so that true solution thus far has been using VC 2.5 Update 2.

With the recent problem where by ESX Update 2 caused VMs to expire on 8/12/08, plus this one with the VC, it seems like Citrix XenServer keeps getting more and more of a better solution for me. I hope Vmware will improve their Quality Control and Patch Management testing to avoid future problems like this!

[supportbaker]

Had the following errors.

Setting VerifySSLCertificates to FALSE

Failed to initialize: not well-formed (invalid token)

Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down...

Forcing shutdown of VMware VirtualCenter now

The fix for me was vpxd -b

All is working again

[PaChilds]

Running "vpxd -b" is a little extreme since it recreates the SQL tables. Yeah it works, but if you wanted what was in those tables you are not going to be satified with the results. I would try the other solutions describe in this thread instead.

[andreleibovici]

Same error in Event Viewer:

The description for Event ID ( 1000 ) in Source ( VMware VirtualCenter Server ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: Log directory: C:\Documents and Settings\svc_vmware_vcenter\Local Settings\Application Data\VMware\vpx.

VPX log file showing:

2009-10-08 08:51:29.222 05276 error 'App' Error inserting events: "ODBC error: () - " is returned when executing SQL statement "INSERT INTO VPX_EVENT WITH (ROWLOCK) (EVENT_ID, CHAIN_ID, EVENT_TYPE, EXTENDED_CLASS, CREATE_TIME, USERNAME, CATEGORY, VM_ID, VM_NAME, HOST_ID, HOST_NAME, COMPUTERESOURCE_ID, COMPUTERESOURCE_TYPE, COMPUTERESOURCE_NAME, DATACENTER_ID, DATACENTER_NAME, DATASTORE_ID, DATASTORE_NAME, NETWORK_ID, NETWORK_NAME, NETWORK_TYPE, DVS_ID, DVS_NAME, CHANGE_TAG_ID) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)"

Solution:

I've tried several diferent things previously used but came down to lack of disk space for the database.The backups were taking the whole lot.

Lesson Learned: Check your environment before running any commands, expecially if nothing has been changed prior to the outage.

[loadbalacersya]

Espero que te sirva,

Este problema se debe a que en la documentación de instalación de VCenter 4.1, se dice que la BD debe tener ciertos permisos, y esos permisos son los que uno le pide al DBA, pero cuando se instala el VCenter este necesita también escribir en otras bases. Es por esto que debes pedir al DBA que solo para la instalación de Vcenter la cuenta asignada tenga todos los permisos, terminas la instalación y le dejas permisos solo a la BD que ocupara VCenter