vCenter Server service can not start

[vmvn01]

Hi,

Our virtualization system is using vSphere 5.5 version. Everything were OK until before yesterday that could not load Inventories information. Anywhere in the vSphere client navigator GUI were loading display. Then, I was restarted the Vmware VirtualCenter Server service and it was starting/started/starting/started ... status display. At that time, I could connect to the vCenter Server from vSphere client for 1min then disconnected. After 10mins from service started, I was restarted the vCenter Server machine. When the Server come up, I was checked the Vmware VirtualCenter Server service and saw that service was displaying starting/started/starting/started ... again !!

Checked the Event log of windows, I could see: "The VMware VirtualCenter Server service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 110 time(s).  The following corrective action will be taken in 0 milliseconds: Restart the service." and after that was "The VMware VirtualCenter Server service terminated with service-specific error The system cannot find the file specified.."

The vpxa and catalina logs was attatched.

Now, our vcenter server service is stopped.

Our OS windows is Windows 2008 server R2 SP1 64bit running on a virtual machine.

I tried this but did not fix VMware KB: vCenter Server 5.5 fails to start after reboot with the error: Unable to create SSO facad...

Please help us.

Thank you very much.

[vThinkBeyondVM]

I have never observed any issue on windows 2008 R2 for VC. Can you try to reproduce this issue again on another VM? If you can reproduce, plz contact VMware support.

[vNEX]

Hi,

from logs there is some problem with communication to SSO ....

please check that all vCenter services are configured to start with same account (etc. /LOCAL SYSTEM or domain account with admin priv.)

Do you have any antivirus software installed on the server?

You can also try to refresh trust between vCenter components by reregistering them to each other see:

VMware KB: Re-pointing and re-registering VMware vCenter Server 5.1 / 5.5 and components

Regards,

P.

[devakumar]

• Stop scanning all files.
• Prevent the scanning of the SSO folder (located in C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer\).

If it does not solve restart the VMware Secure Token Service:

1. Stop the VMware Secure Token Service, then restart it.
2. After the VMware Secure Token Service has restarted, start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service

[vmvn01]

Thank for all,

I've already followed some guides from you:

- Restarted VMware STS service then restarted VMware VirtualCenter Server service

- Re-installed SSO and re-registered components to SSO

- Fully uninstalled vSphere (SSO, Inventory, Web client, vCenter Server) and then reinstalled them with "Do not overwrite DB" option (we use separating SQL DB for vCenter Server, installed the same machine).

=> VMware VirtualCenter Server service still started unstable (starting/started/starting/started ... and after 10times, it's terminated).

We have trend micro antivirus agent installed on vCenter Server machine, but vCenter server service still doesn't work when trend micro is off

[vNEX]

Hi,

please post vpxd and SSO log files.

Check if you comply with all the requirements for Windows platform:

VMware KB: Installing vCenter Server 5.5 on a Microsoft Windows platform

- uninstall all antivirus software from vCenter server machine, reboot and try again.

- do you have any other special/specific software installed on vCenter server machine?

- if you have UAC (User Account Control) enabled on the server turn it off

- are all vCenter services configured to start with same account (etc. /LOCAL SYSTEM or domain account with admin priv.) ?

- are you able to sucesffuly connect to the vCenter database via ODBC and DSN configured or through native client?

- are you using bundled SQL 2008 R2 Express database, what size have this database (for Express edition max.size is 10GB)

- ...our your own SQL database if yes then what version? have you checked permissions and password expiration for vpxuser/database user which is used by vCenter for database access.

Double check database creation prerequisites:

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-55-install...

When all of the checks above doesn't leads you to resolution backup your existing vCenter database and reinstall vCenter with option "Replace my existing database ...." just to exclude

your actual database from further investigation and vice versa.

Regards,

P.

[vmvn01]

Hi vNEX,

vpxd and SSO zipped log files are attacted.

- Antivirus is uninstalled already. Rebooted server and tried again, but problems are still there.

- No additional/special softwares are installed on the vCenter Server.

- UAC is disabled

- All vCenter services are configured to start with same LOCAL SYSTEM

- We are using seperated single DB server (SQL server 2008 R2) and can connect to DB from native client, don't use bundle express DB.

- Using SA user to connect to SQL DB.

Thanks./.

[vNEX]

Hi,

found this in your log:

2014-05-06T10:30:13.767+07:00 [08376 error 'win32vpxLdap_win32'] [LDAP Client] Failed to add LDAP entry CN=320DEBD7-4014-496A-A292-5632D9D802A3,OU=ComponentSpecs,OU=Health,dc=virtualcenter,dc=vmware,dc=int: 0x68 (The object already exists.)

2014-05-06T10:30:13.768+07:00 [08376 error 'win32vpxLdap_win32'] [LDAP Client] Failed to add LDAP entry CN=320DEBD7-4014-496A-A292-5632D9D802A3.vpxd,CN=320DEBD7-4014-496A-A292-5632D9D802A3,OU=ComponentSpecs,OU=Health,dc=virtualcenter,dc=vmware,dc=int: 0x68 (The object already exists.)

try to resolve it with this KB:

VMware KB: VMware vCenter Server 5.x fails to start with the error: Failed to add LDAP entry

Regards,

P.

[vmvn01]

Hi vNEX,

I found this KB and tried to follow that before also, but the problem were not resolved.

Thanks./.