Starting the VMware VirtualCenter Server service fails with the error: Windows could not start the VMware VirtualCenter Server on Local Computer

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Cannot start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service.
• Manually starting the VMware VirtualCenter Server service by navigating to Computer Management > Services and Applications > Service > VMware VirtualCenter Server fails.
• You see the error:
  
  Windows could not start the VMware VirtualCenter Server on Local Computer. For more information, review the System Event Log. If this is a non-Microsoft service, contact the service vendor, and refer to service-specific error code 2.
  
  
• In the vpxd.log file of vCenter Server, you see the error:
  
  Database error: "ODBC error: (42000) - [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 10.0][SQL Server]The transaction log for database 'VMDB' is full. To find out why space in the log cannot be reused, see the log_reuse_wait_desc column in sys.databases" is returned when executing SQL statement "delete from VPX_VMFS_EXTENT with (rowlock) where ID = 177"
  
  
• Re-installing vCenter Server does not resolve the issue.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x

Resolution

This issue occurs when transaction log (.ldf ) size of the vCenter Server database exceeds the maximum limit.

To resolve this issue, change the recovery model to simple and shrink the transactional logs. For steps to troubleshoot transaction log issues in the Microsoft SQL database server, see Troubleshooting transaction logs on a Microsoft SQL database server (1003980).

This issue may also occur if the password for the account on the SQL database server used to connect to the vCenter Server database has expired.

To resolve this issue, ensure that the account password is valid. For more information, see VirtualCenter Server service fails to start with the error: The password for user account ' <username></username>' has expired (1012498).

For a vCenter Server installation with a database on an embedded SQL Server Express, the issue might occur if the transaction log size is reached.

To resolve this issue, verify the name of the SQL Server instance and change the transaction log size.

To verify the name of the SQL Server instance and change the transaction log size:

1. Verify the actual name of the SQL Server instance used with vCenter Server.
   1. Start the ODBC Data Sources manager from the Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC).
   2. Select VMware VirtualCenter DSN in the System DSN tab and click configure to see the details.
   3. The server name is shown in the Server edit box.
      
2. Use the SQL Server command line tool to change the transaction log size limit.
   1. Start the command prompt.
   2. Run the command osql -S <server name from ODBC DSN> -E
   3. Run next SQL:
      
      1. go
         
      2. ALTER DATABASE [VIM_VCDB]
      3. MODIFY FILE ( NAME = N'VIM_VCDB_LOG', MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED )
      4. go
         
   4. Exit the command tool by typing exit.
      

Additional Information

For translated versions of this article, see:

• 日本語: VMware VirtualCenter Server サービスの起動が次のエラーで失敗する： Windows could not start the VMware VirtualCenter Server on Local Computer (2032731)

"The transaction log for database 'VIM_VCDB' is full" error on a Microsoft SQL DB server
VMware VirtualCenter Server service fails to start with the error: The password for user account 'username' has expired
VMware VirtualCenter Server サービスの起動が次のエラーで失敗する： Windows could not start the VMware VirtualCenter Server on Local Computer
启动 VMware VirtualCenter Server 服务失败并出现错误：Windows 无法在本地计算机上启动 VMware VirtualCenter Server (Windows could not start the VMware VirtualCenter Server on Local Computer)