vpxd does not start

[exeral]

Hello,

I have a vcenter appliance version 5.5

I tried to change the SSL certificates. it was a fail and half of the services were not working properly.

So I rollbacked and put back the old certificates.

service vmware-vpxd was still not starting.

I followed many procedures, KB, etc. and I think I accidentally wiped the embedded database. And I have no backup of course !

vcenter:~ # /opt/vmware/vpostgres/9.0/bin/psql -h 127.0.0.1 -p 5432 -d VCDB -U vc

Password for user vc:

psql.bin (9.0.22)

Type "help" for help.

No entry for terminal type "xterm-256color";

using dumb terminal settings.

VCDB=> \dt vpx.*;

VCDB=> SELECT * FROM vpx.vpx_license;

serial_number | serial_key | type

---------------+------------+------

(0 rows)

VCDB=> \l

                              List of databases

   Name    |  Owner   | Encoding  | Collation | Ctype |   Access privileges

-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+-------+-----------------------

VCDB      | vc       | SQL_ASCII | C         | C     | =Tc/vc               +

           |          |           |           |       | vc=CTc/vc

postgres  | postgres | SQL_ASCII | C         | C     |

template0 | postgres | SQL_ASCII | C         | C     | =c/postgres          +

           |          |           |           |       | postgres=CTc/postgres

template1 | postgres | SQL_ASCII | C         | C     | =c/postgres          +

           |          |           |           |       | postgres=CTc/postgres

(4 rows)

VCDB=> \dn

        List of schemas

        Name        |  Owner

--------------------+----------

information_schema | postgres

pg_catalog         | postgres

pg_toast           | postgres

pg_toast_temp_1    | postgres

pg_toast_temp_14   | postgres

pg_toast_temp_15   | postgres

pg_toast_temp_2    | postgres

pg_toast_temp_25   | postgres

pg_toast_temp_26   | postgres

public             | postgres

vpx                | vc

(11 rows)

VCDB=> \dt

                    List of relations

Schema |              Name              | Type  | Owner

--------+--------------------------------+-------+-------

vpx    | vpx_access                     | table | vc

vpx    | vpx_alarm                      | table | vc

vpx    | vpx_alarm_action               | table | vc

vpx    | vpx_alarm_disabled_actions     | table | vc

vpx    | vpx_alarm_expr_comp            | table | vc

vpx    | vpx_alarm_expression           | table | vc

vpx    | vpx_alarm_repeat_action        | table | vc

vpx    | vpx_alarm_runtime              | table | vc

vpx    | vpx_alarm_state                | table | vc

vpx    | vpx_binary_data                | table | vc

vpx    | vpx_bulletin_operation         | table | vc

[......]

VCDB=> SELECT * FROM vpx.vpx_license;

serial_number | serial_key | type

---------------+------------+------

(0 rows)

VCDB=>

How can I confirm I have wiped the database ?

My main concern is some ESX hosts hve lost root passwords.

To manage them, vcenter was the last way I guess ?!

Thanks

[scott28tt]

Unless you're using the Host Profiles feature, only a re-install of ESXi will let you reset any forgotten root password: VMware Knowledge Base

If you're running anything like production workloads on those hosts, you should seriously consider an upgrade given that 5.5 has been out of support/updates for 2 years now.

[daphnissov]

Looks like a redeploy of vCenter is in your future. Hopefully one that's supported.

[exeral]

hopefully, I managed to recover the root password !

I will reinstall an up-to-date vCenter. and reattach the ESX to it.

one more question:

What happens to VMs that I modified/created on the ESX locally when the ESX will be reattached to the new vCenter ?

[daphnissov]

Nothing, they continue to run as they are now.