vCenter will not start due to SQL error

[CharlesJP]

Hello everyone..

I have just moved my ESX 4 host to a different network scheme (from a 117.0/24 to a 11.0/24). Everything has went well so far but in turning the VMs back on, my vCenter VM will not start properly. I haven't made any domain changes in the network move, just changing DNS settings. Here are the Event Logs:

Event Type: Error

Event Source: VMware VirtualCenter Server

Event Category: None

Event ID: 1000

Date: 1/6/2010

Time: 7:06:34 AM

User: N/A

Computer: SVR2003STD-VSVR

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....

Event Type: Error

Event Source: VMware VirtualCenter Server

Event Category: None

Event ID: 1000

Date: 1/6/2010

Time: 7:06:34 AM

User: N/A

Computer: SVR2003STD-VSVR

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: Error getting configuration info from the database.

Both of those I believe are caused by this:

Event Type: Failure Audit

Event Source: MSSQL$SQLEXP_VIM

Event Category: (4)

Event ID: 18456

Date: 1/6/2010

Time: 7:06:34 AM

User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM

Computer: SVR2003STD-VSVR

Description:

Login failed for user 'NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM'.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Data:

0000: 18 48 00 00 0e 00 00 00 .H......

0008: 1b 00 00 00 53 00 56 00 ....S.V.

0010: 52 00 32 00 30 00 30 00 R.2.0.0.

0018: 33 00 53 00 54 00 44 00 3.S.T.D.

0020: 2d 00 56 00 53 00 56 00 -.V.S.V.

0028: 52 00 5c 00 53 00 51 00 R.\.S.Q.

0030: 4c 00 45 00 58 00 50 00 L.E.X.P.

0038: 5f 00 56 00 49 00 4d 00 _.V.I.M.

0040: 00 00 07 00 00 00 6d 00 ......m.

0048: 61 00 73 00 74 00 65 00 a.s.t.e.

0050: 72 00 00 00 r...

Any assistance in resolving this would be appreciated.

[AndreTheGiant]

You must check why SQL Express does not start.

Sure that the FQDN is not changed?

Andre

[Yann77]

Hi,

You could check why the vCenter login attempt fails to connect to SQL Server Express in the Management Studio tool.

vCenter is using the windows SYSTEM account to connect to the SQL Server instance.

If you have not SQL Server management studio, you can get here at this URL:

Then connect to your database and expand Management > SQL Server Logs section to review the login failure code.

You have a description of various login failure reasons on the following blog article:

Let us know how you progress. Thanks.

Yann

[CharlesJP]

Yann,

Thank you for the tip on the Management Studio. I have attached the screenshot from the logs.. There are no items listed for any of the archives listed under that subdirectory.

I logged in using Windows authentication with the domain admin account... I have tried to change the logon section of the 3 SQL services from using NT \SYSTEM to this domain admin account but that did not work either.

Edit: Also, I know absolutely nothing about SQL. So if I need to do something else inside this Management Studio please let me know.

[Yann77]

my bad, it seems that the express version does not allow to view the logs through this menu whereas it is there...

You can follow the tutorial on this site:

It explains how to use a stored procedure to parse the log files from management studio. (xp_readerrorlog and sp_readerrorlog)

Alternatively, I think they are located by default in %Program Files%\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\LOG\ and can be opened using Notepad.

Even after ensure login attempts are recorded, the file did not populate on in sql server express here...could be a dead end but the login failure reason (Severity, State) is important to understand the root cause of this issue IMHO.

Thanks,

Yann

[olafz]

I have the same problem, and I just fixed it.

"VMware VirtualCenter Server" must not logon as SYSTEM, but as somebody with matching SQL permissions. I used Studio Express and created a database "vcenter_server" with owner domain\vmadmin. I then set the "VMware VirtualCenter Server"service to log on with this user account.

Olaf

[Yann77]

"VMware VirtualCenter Server" must not logon as SYSTEM, but as somebody with matching SQL permissions.

Thanks for adding this. As per the VI35 hardening guide, rights granted to this new user can be further restricted:

>Microsoft SQL Server

>During installation and upgrade, the VirtualCenter account must have the DB Owner role. During normal

>operations, you may further restrict permissions to the following:

>-Invoke/execute stored procedures

>-Select, update, insert

>-Delete