vCenter Service Status page alerts: Unable to retrieve health status

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The vCenter Service Status page shows these alerts:
  
  Unable to retrieve health status for vCenter inventory service
  Unable to retrieve health status for VMware vSphere Profile-Driven storage service
  
  
• The vCenter Server search functionality fails with errors similar to the following:
  
  
  • Unable to connect to web services to perform query.
    Verify that the "VMware VirtualCenter Management WebServices" service running on https://<vcenter-host-name>:10443
    
    
  • Login to the query service failed.The server name could not be resolved. (The remote name could not be resolved: 'FQDN_vc_name')
    
  
  
• When you open ServiceDirectory through vCenter Managed object browser ( https://<vcenter-host-name>/mob/?moid=ServiceDirectory), a duplicate entry for VSPHERE-INVENTORY-SERVICE instance gets created
• The VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage service does not start after startup, or if it starts, it fails shortly after startup.
• When clicking on vCenter Service Status, errors similar to the following may be reported.
  
  
  • Unable to connect to storage profile service at http://vc_fqdn:443/sps/sdk
  • Unable to connect to vcenter inventory service at http://vc_fqdn:443/vws/sdk

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x

Cause

This issue occurs when vCenter Server is installed on a machine other than the one used for the original install, but is referencing the same vCenter Server database as the original install.

For example, you install or upgrade to vCenter Server 5.0 on a machine and use a remote vCenter Server database. You then uninstall vCenter Server, reinstall vCenter Server on a new machine, and use the same database instance.

This issue may occur because of erroneous endpoint information in vCenter Server for the Inventory Service.

Note: This issue has also been reported to occur after changing the vCenter Server hostname

Resolution

This issue is resolved in VMware vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1. To download vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1, see the VMware Download Center.

To workaround this issue when you do not want to upgrade, replace the vws.jar, jointool.jar, and ds.jar files with the files in the attached 2008664_vws.zip file. Replacing these files causes stale Inventory Service endpoint information to be removed from the vCenter LDAP directory.

To replace the files:

1. Take a back up of the vws.jar, jointool.jar, and ds.jar files.
2. Download 2008664_vws.zip file attached to this article and extract the vws.jar, jointool.jar, and ds.jar files.
3. Stop the VMware VirtualCenter Server service, the VirtualCenter Management Webservices services, and the vCenter Inventory service. For more information, see Stopping, starting, or restarting vCenter services (1003895).
   
   Note: Wait five minutes after stopping the service before proceeding to Step 4.
   
   
4. Copy vws.jar and jointool.jar file to the install folder, for example C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\tomcat\webapps\vws\WEB-INF\lib on vCenter Server. This overwrites the existing vws.jar and jointool.jar files.
5. Copy the ds.jar file to the install folder, for example C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Inventory Service\lib on vCenter Server. This overwrites the existing ds.jar file.
6. Start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service, the VirtualCenter Management Webservices services, and the vCenter Inventory service. For more information, see Stopping, starting, or restarting vCenter services (1003895).
   
   Note: After restarting VirtualCenter Management Webservices service and the vCenter Inventory service, wait for five minutes before trying the Search function in vCenter Server. If the search function does not work as expected, try restarting the VMware VirtualCenter Server service or consider rebooting vCenter Server.

Additional Information

Inventory Service fails with the error: XhiveException: IO_ERROR
[vCenter サービス ステータス] ページのアラート：健全性ステータスを取得できません
vCenter Service Status 页面警示：无法检索运行状况