VmWare VCenter Server service won't start

[alwazelearning]

Earlier this week, we experienced some issues with our Vcenter that required us to reload our server from an image. Now that the server is back up and functioning, the VCenter Server Service and the Vcenter Management Webserver service both will not start.

I get the following error.

The VMware VirtualCenter Server service terminated with service-specific error 2 (0x2) upon starting up VC Server

If anyone can provide me with assistance as to why this is happening I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

[logiboy123]

Did someone make the vCenter server into a domain controller?

Where is the database, local on the same server or on a seperate box?

Please test connectivity to your database first, if vCenter cannot access the database it won't start up and I suspect this is probably your issue.

Regards,

Paul

[Nikhil_Patwa]

Hi,

Check the ODBC connection of your vCenter to test connectivity to vCenter Database.

Is your vCenter Server joined to the Domain? if yes try to rejoin the vCenter Server to the Domain, looks like it's lost communication to the domain as you have restored from an image. It has happened to my vCenter where suddenly it lost ODBC connection and the vCenter services would not start though am logged in as Domain Administrator, I had to remove the system from domain and rejoin it back after that vCenter was working fine.

Hope this information is useful

Nikhil

[alwazelearning]

I checked and this server is not a DC

[alwazelearning]

I removed the server from the domain and then readded it to the domain. Services still do not start.

[brianslattery]

What do you see in Event Viewer (Start > Run > Eventvwr.msc)? Check for any errors/warnings.

If that doesn't help at all, check the vCenter logs at %SystemDrive%:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs (Or another drive if not install on that of the OS itself). The file you want is vpxd-*.log, and you can search for things like "fail" and may come up with something that way.

Another thing to try is setting the service (Start > Run > Services.msc) to run as Local System if it is set to start with another account. Then try to start it.

-Brian

[brianslattery]

Forgot to say, what was the result of Paul's mention about checking the database connection? (Start > Run > ODBCAD32.exe). You can start the connectivity test in there (System tab), then click Configure, and Next until you are prompted to test the connection). Then cancel out of it unless you need to make changes.

[alwazelearning]

Sorry for not posting this earlier I went into ODBC>System DSN>Selected VMware VirtualCenter>Clicked Configure and got the ODBC Microsoft SQL Server Setup and Tested the Data Source. Below are the results.

Microsoft SQL Native Client Version 09.00.4035

Running connectivity tests...

Attempting connection
Connection established
Verifying option settings
Disconnecting from server

TESTS COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY!

I did this several times but still am unable to start the VCenter Service. Later on I even tried changing the Logon information and have SQL to use the same credentials as the VCenter service (The Enterprise Admin account) but still No Dice.

[alwazelearning]

I found this in the vpx.log. Don't know if this helps the cause or not.

Section for VMware VirtualCenter, pid=4752, version=4.0.0, build=build-208111, option=Release
[2012-08-20 11:22:12.234 04988 info 'App'] Current working directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32
[2012-08-20 11:22:12.234 04988 info 'Libs'] HOSTINFO: Seeing Intel CPU, numCoresPerCPU 1 numThreadsPerCore 2.
[2012-08-20 11:22:12.234 04988 info 'Libs'] HOSTINFO: This machine has 2 physical CPUS, 2 total cores, and 4 logical CPUs.
[2012-08-20 11:22:12.234 04988 info 'App'] Log path: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs
[2012-08-20 11:22:12.234 04988 info 'App'] Initializing SSL
[2012-08-20 11:22:12.234 04988 info 'Libs'] Using system libcrypto, version 9080AF
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.296 04988 info 'App'] Vmacore::InitSSL: doVersionCheck = true, handshakeTimeoutUs = 120000000
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] Starting VMware VirtualCenter 4.0.0 build-208111
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] Log directory: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.[Domain Name]\Local Settings\Application Data\VMware\vpx.
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] Account name: Administrator
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] Total virtual memory available for the process 2097024 KB
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [VpxOsLayer] Enabled low-frag process heap.

[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [VpxOsLayer] Enabled low-frag crt heap.

[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [Vpxd::ServerApp::Init:751] Calling: InfoDeclSchema(gDB)
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [Vpxd::ServerApp::Init:753] Calling: VpxCallbackDesc::Init(MakeFunctor(this, &ServerApp::RequestShutdown))
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [Vpxd::ServerApp::Init:754] Calling: VpxCryptInit()
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [Vpxd::ServerApp::Init:755] Calling: VpxLRO::Init()
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [Vpxd::ServerApp::Init:756] Calling: VpxLroList::Init(ltud)
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [VpxLRO] 128 max LROs
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [VpxLRO] 12 reserved internal LROs
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [VpxLRO] 12 reserved blocker LROs
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [VpxLRO] 12 reserved short LROs
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [VpxLRO] 8 reserved long LROs
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [VpxLRO] 600-second task lifetime
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [Vpxd::ServerApp::Init:757] Calling: VpxdCharacterizeThreadpool(ltud, minNumThreads, maxNumThreads)
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [Vpxd::ServerApp::Init:758] Calling: VpxdCertificate_Load(gDB, CERTIFICATE_VMDBPATH )
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.312 04988 info 'App'] [Vpxd::ServerApp::Init:759] Calling: VpxdVdb::Init(Vdb::GetInstance(), false, false)
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.906 04988 error 'App'] Vdb::Connection::TestConnection SQLExecute failed: 42S02:208
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.906 04988 error 'App'] [Vdb::LockRepositoryHelper] Missing table vpx_dual
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.906 04988 error 'App'] A database error occurred: Repository has not been created
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.906 04988 error 'App'] [Vpxd::ServerApp::Init] Init failed: VpxdVdb::Init(Vdb::GetInstance(), false, false)
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.906 04988 error 'App'] Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down...
[2012-08-20 11:22:13.906 04988 info 'App'] Forcing shutdown of VMware VirtualCenter now

[admin]

What user account does the vcenter service run as? If it is local Administrator try changing that to local system or domain account. Are you able to login to SQL management studio using the account specified in the ODBC setup? Verify the database name and user account in ODBC. Does that user have dbo access to the vcenter database?

Try to restart SQL services and then start VC.

[vN3rd]

Check your network ports to make sure that something else is not trying to use the same ports that vCenter Server requires.

KB on the default vCenter 5 ports:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=2005105

[alwazelearning]

Hello all,

I was out of the office yesterday so I didn't get to update this post but I figured it out. I reinstalled VCenter Server (which I'm not quite sure if that was really necessary) and reinstalled SQL Native Client and the 2005 Command Line Query Utility. Works fine now.

Thanks for all of your help.