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VMware: VirtualCenter Server service fails to start

Originally published Last updated 5 comments

My Openfiler iSCSI SAN failed, and all virtual machines on my VirtualCenter Server needed to be rebooted. After the reboot, the “VMware VirtualCenter Server” service failed to start and showed this error:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: VMware VirtualCenter Server
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 7/14/2009
Time: 10:00:42 AM
User: N/A
Computer: VC
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….

VMWare Virtual Center Application eventlog events

I opened Windows Explorer, browsed to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs and opened the latest vpxd-XX.log file. It contained the following error:

[2009-07-14 10:00:42.480 'App' 3976 info] [VpxLRO] 600-second task lifetime

[2009-07-14 10:00:42.480 'App' 3976 error] [VpxdCertificate] Failed: cannot open certificate file: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\ssl\rui.crt

[2009-07-14 10:00:42.480 'App' 3976 error] Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down...

[2009-07-14 10:00:42.480 'App' 3976 info] Forcing shutdown of VMware VirtualCenter now

I opened the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\ssl folder, but it was empty. I searched for rui.crt in C:\ and found similar certificates in two other directories:

  • C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Converter Enterprise\ssl
  • C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Update Manager\SSL

I copied C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Converter Enterprise\ssl to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\ssl\ and started the “VMware VirtualCenter Server” service again. This time, it started successfully. Log in with the VMware Virtual Infrastructure client and connect your ESX hosts again.

References

5 comments

Comments from the original WordPress site, kept read-only.

    1. Ivan Versluis

      Thanks Pete. I approved your comment due to inserted hyperlink.

      Very useful KB and it applies to my post too. If your DB becomes 4 GB large and you need to keep the database then moving it is also a good reason.

  1. Gaurav Baghla

    Atleast one of the solution would definetly Work
    1)Move default website to port 8080
    2)All you should have to do is delete the ODBC connection and create a new one this time specifying SQL Server authentication instead of Windows authentication
    3)disable SQL Server Reporting Service