VMPlayer with ESXI host and vcenter server

[GregCotten]

I have a question, I want to install and play around with Vcenter server on my laptop, I have no other PC's to use. I have VmWare Player installed and I have installed an ESXI host on this and connected to it through vsphere client and created a few VM's.  That is good and easy, but what is the best way to install Vcenter Server on my laptop and connect it to the already running ESXi host?  I have installed vcenter server on a Windows 2008 R2 SP1 VM I created and installed the client on this vm also but when I try to add the host, which is sees when adding, I get an error.  Am I doing this correctly?  If you only had a laptop and you wanted to install Vcenter server, how would you do it?

[abhilashhb]

Hi GregCotten,

Welcome to the community,

What error are you getting while trying to add the host? What you are doing is fine. You have created a VM with ESXI and the you have another VM with vCenter or is this vCenter VM inside the ESXi host?

[GregCotten]

Well I am new at this, and taking a class on vcenter server.  The exact error is " A general system error occurred: Timed waiting for vpxa to start"   Now I have looked at the vpxa log and it shows the Esxi host has denied this vcenter virtual machine from managing it.   As I said I have the Esxi host running in Vmware Player and a vsphere client connecting to this host with a Windows 2008 r2 datacenter VM with Vcenter running on it.  Both have IP addresses and can ping each other.  I am using root and the password when using the "Add Host" on the vcenter server to connect.  What else can I try?  yes the Vcenter vm is inside of the ESXI host.  I am trying to do all of this on my laptop so I can take it from home to work.

[abhilashhb]

What are the versions of ESXi and vCenter you are using?

[GregCotten]

These are both 5.1

[abhilashhb]

can you paste the output of vxpd.log?

[GregCotten]

The ESXI host is named new-host.  the log is pretty long but there seems to be an issue with permission.  I put in the "root" username

[abhilashhb]

There are lot of error's in the log. Firstly has the vCenter come up? And what error do you get when you try adding the host on vcenter? Can you paste that error?

[GregCotten]

The exact error is "A General system error occurred:Timed out waiting for vpxa to start"

[Andrei_I]

Hi Greg,

I am not sure if you have been able to fix the issue but here is a possible solution.

The Vmware vCenter Server service takes a loooong time to start because of its dependencies. If you have Vcenter Server installed on a W2k3 or W2k8 you can try to check in services.msc if the service is started and running.

Hope it helps.

andrei