"Failed to start the vAPI Endpoint Service" error installing or upgrading to vCenter Server 6.5

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• Installing or upgrading to vCenter Servre 6.5 fails with the error:
  
  "VMware vCenter Server": "An error occurred while starting service 'vapi-endpoint'
   
• In the vMon log file, there are entries similar to:
  
  2017-01-17T12:27:07.322-08:00| vthread-5| I125: Received start for vapi-endpoint
  2017-01-17T12:27:07.322-08:00| vthread-5| I125: Constructed command : "D:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\visl-integration\usr\sbin\cloudvm-ram-size.bat" -J vmware-vapi-endpoint -O D:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\data/vmware-vmon/vapi-endpoint.start.cmd
  2017-01-17T12:27:07.322-08:00| vthread-5| I125: Setting working dir of process to D:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\vapi/wrapper/bin.
  2017-01-17T12:27:07.731-08:00| vthread-5| W115: Service vapi-endpoint pre-start command's stderr: This program is blocked by group policy. For more information, contact your system administrator.
  2017-01-17T12:27:07.731-08:00| vthread-5| W115:
  2017-01-17T12:27:07.733-08:00| vthread-5| E110: Service vapi-endpoint pre-start command failed with exit code 1.
  2017-01-17T12:27:24.124-08:00| vthread-5| I125: Received stop for vapi-endpoint
  
  Note:
  • The vMon.log log file is found in the VMware-VCS-logs-<year><month><day><hour><minute><second>.zip file created on on the vCenter Server after a failed upgrade.
  • The vmon-syslog.log file will be located in /var/log/vmware/vmon of the failed appliance.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 6.5.x

Cause

vmware-vapi-endpoint will not start when there are permission issues or an anti-virus preventing the installer from accessing files.

Resolution

Verify the user installing vCenter Server is an administrator on the system and that anti-virus is disabled during installation or upgrade.