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Auz
Contributor
Contributor

Virtual Center Service not starting

I am having issues this-morning when I come in. Virtual Center was not available. When I looked at the virtual centre server the VirtualCenter Service was stopped. I Have had a good look around the forums and tried a few things to get the service to start again but having not luck.

I am running VC 2.5 with SQL 2000 DB Server. The Error I get in the event application log is as follows:

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 thing I did notice my SQL Database log file was 45GB! so reading on forums I changed the recovery mode to simple performed a backup and shrunk the log file to 1mb. I have also tried to look at the VPX logs but there is not information in them for today or yesturday. Also I have repaired the installation and also reinstalled VC using the exsisting DB configuration but still no luck starting the serivce? If anyone has any ideas i would be mostly grateful. my last option is to try and complete reinstall with with a clean DB but I don't want to have to do that?

Many Thanks

Austin

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9 Replies
Vandalay
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Double check the logs at

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

I've never seen it not have an error entry here if it won't start.

Here's a helpful troubleshooting article...

Auz
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks Vandalay

For your comments, Yes I was looking in the wrong place. Here is the output from that log

Log for VMware VirtualCenter, pid=344, 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: This machine has 1 physical CPUS, 1 total cores, and 2 logical CPUs.

Log path: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\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: hoas

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

Unable to recover from 42000:195

Unable to recover from 42000:8180

Couldn't read registry entry vmdbPort

Couldn't read registry entry managedIP

Ignoring unknown entry from DB: Perf.Stats.FilterLevel

Invoking callbacks for key vpxd.npivWwnGeneration.singleNodeWwn

Invoking callbacks for key vpxd.npivWwnGeneration.portWwnNumber

Locale subsystem initialized from C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\locale/ with default locale en.

Initializing SSL Contexts

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

Does this make any sense to you?

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Vandalay
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Check to see that the hosts and VC are on the same update. i.e. if you have hosts that are 3.5 Update 2, make sure the VC is 2.5 Update 2.

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Auz
Contributor
Contributor

I have not made any changes to my ESX servers recently interms of updates and I upgraded these a few months ago. What I am going to try next is to uninstall Vmware Virtual Centre and manually remove any stale Reg entries.

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Vandalay
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Having the wrong version of VC can cause delayed problems like this than can come some time later after you upgrade the hosts. I would check the versions before rebuilding from scratch.

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Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

You happen to have IIS running on your vCenter server do you?

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Rao
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Virtual Center 2.5 uses same port IIS ue, and cannot coexist with IIS. Stop IIS service.

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Auz
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for help all but I have not got IIS installed on the Server. I going to try and install Virtual Center 2.5 update 3.

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atbnet
Expert
Expert

It looks like it cant read the registry entry for the IP and port. Does the DSN still exist?! If not the registry settings are missing. Test the DB connection.

Andy, VMware Certified Professional (VCP),

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Andy Barnes
VCP / VCA-DT / MCITP:EA / CCIA
Help, Guides and How Tos... www.VMadmin.co.uk

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