VMware VirtualCenter service won't start

I had a power outage the other day, and unfortunately I don't have my lab on backup. I have plenty of other prod gear on backup, so to add more I'll need a couple more units. I'm now contemplating putting my lab on battery backup. This issue has been a big headache.

I have my vCenter running as a VM off one of my ESXi boxes. I'm currently running version 5.1. Since the server crashed I can no longer start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service. The error just states the service can't be started. In event viewer, it states 'The description for Event ID 1000 from source VMware VirtualServer Center Server cannot be found' From what I found online people said to check the SQL port and restart the service without the default delay. But I'm still experiencing the issue.

Has anybody come across this problem before?

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daceto

I only have that type of issue if my DB size is maxed out in SQL. Did you check that?

ninjaturtle

I checked the drive space and it looks good, 30+GBs of space left. Is a size definition specified within SQL? I believe to view this you need Management Studio, which doesn't come installed with the VMware install. I know very little about SQL. I don't believe in coincidence, and the fact that the issue surfaced after an abrupt shutdown makes me think it's not a SQL space issue.

iBrokeIT

The vCenter running out of database space is fairly common thing you should not dismiss. Having +30 GB of disk space left is irrelevant when the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express database size is limited to 4GB.

A quick Google search of your error would show this: VMware KB: Starting VMware VirtualCenter Server service when using SQL authentication fails with the error: Login Failure, Failed to connect to database

Deathmage

I ran into this problem myself about 4 months ago and since have resolved said issue by having a Optiplex 7010 i7, 16 GB, dual Broadcom NIC micro-tower being used as the vCenter Appliance totally separate from the ESXi cluster. Plus on top of that made a backup image of it on the QNAP NAS and made a Norton Ghost image of the 1 TB drive it's installed on.

look at this post.... makes me glad I have that backup.

ninjaturtle

Yea, I've already Googled my error and found that article. Same result. That's why I'm posting on the forums.

I believe the limit changed to 10GB for SQL Server 2008 R2.

ninjaturtle

Deathmage wrote: »

I ran into this problem myself about 4 months ago and since have resolved said issue by having a Optiplex 7010 i7, 16 GB, dual Broadcom NIC micro-tower being used as the vCenter Appliance totally separate from the ESXi cluster. Plus on top of that made a backup image of it on the QNAP NAS and made a Norton Ghost image of the 1 TB drive it's installed on.

look at this post.... makes me glad I have that backup.

I actually have Veeam backing up my VMs, but I didn't have the schedule set for this particular VM. #FAIL! Oh Deathmage, you are a bad influence!! You're going to make me buy more hardware!

So you pulled it off the VM that was running on one of the ESXi boxes in the cluster?

By the way, your post link didn't appear.

blargoe

Your SQL database may be trying to grow, but autogrowth is disabled. Check the properties of the database in SQL Server admin console.

blargoe

Also, check your service account, if you are using a Windows account to run the service. Make sure it is not locked, not expired, and can perform a normal login on a Windows box.