VMware vCenter Server Service fails to start with the error: Failed to initialize: no element found

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The VMware VirtualCenter Service fails to start.
• In the /var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxd.log on the vCenter Server Appliance you see entries similar to:

<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [7F8E2FE5D740 info 'vpxdvpxdMoOptionManager'] [OptionManagerMo] Invoking callbacks for key vpxd.usageStats.level, pre commit</time>

<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [7F8E2FE5D740 info 'vpxdvpxdMoOptionManager'] [OptionManagerMo] No change to vpxd.usageStats.level</time>

<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [7F8E2FE5D740 info 'vpxdvpxdMoOptionManager'] [OptionManagerMo] Invoking callbacks for key vpxd.usageStats.duration, pre commit</time>

<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [7F8E2FE5D740 info 'vpxdvpxdMoOptionManager'] [OptionManagerMo] Invoking callbacks for key vpxd.usageStats.duration, pre commit</time>

<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [7F8E2FE5D740 info 'vpxdvpxdMoOptionManager'] [OptionManagerMo] No change to vpxd.usageStats.duration</time>

<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [7F8E2FE5D740 info 'vpxdvpxdMoCbrcManager'] [CbrcManagerMo::Init]</time>

<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [7F8E2FE5D740 warning 'VpxProfiler'] ServerApp::Init [TotalTime] took 2893 ms</time>

<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [7F8E2FE5D740 error 'vpxdvpxdMain'] [VpxdMain] Failed to initialize: no element found</time>

<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [7F8E2FE5D740 error 'Default'] Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down...</time>

<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [7F8E2FE5D740 info 'vpxdvpxdSupportManager'] Wrote uptime information</time>

<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [7F8E2FE5D740 info 'Default'] Forcing shutdown of VMware VirtualCenter now</time>

• The /etc/vmware-vpx/proxy.xml file is empty.
  
  Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.
  

Environment

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.5.x

Cause

This issue occurs when the proxy.xml file gets corrupted or is empty, after the root partition on the vCenter Server Appliance is full.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, recreate the proxy.xml file.

1. Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance console as root
2. Open the /var/vmware/vpxd/proxy_last_env file and make note of the hostname, ipv4 and ipv6 address.
3. Run this command to rename the /var/vmware/vpxd/proxy_last_env file:
   
   mv /var/vmware/vpxd/proxy_last_env /var/vmware/vpxd/proxy_last_env.old
   
   
4. Run these commands to set environment varible for VPXD_HOST_NAME, VPXD_IP_ADDR and VPXD_IPV6_ADDR
   
   
   export VPXD_HOST_NAME='FQDN_of_vCenter'
   export VPXD_IP_ADDR = 'IPV4_address_of_vCenter'
   export VPXD_IPV6_ADDR='IPV6_address_of_vCenter'
   
   
5. Download proxy.xml file attached to this article and copy it to /etc/vmware-vpx using winscp.
6. Run the fix_proxy.sh script located in /usr/lib/vmware-vpx/
   
   /usr/lib/vmware-vpx/fix_proxy.sh
   
   
7. View the proxy.xml file located in /etc/vmware-vpx/ and ensure element 23, 24, 25 are populated with vCenter FQDN, IPV4_address and IPV6_address.
8. Start the vCenter Server Service
   
   service vmware-vpxd start

Additional Information

VMware vCenter Server Service の起動が次のエラーで失敗する：初期化に失敗しました。エレメントがありません
VMware vCenter Server 服务无法启动，并显示以下错误：无法初始化:未找到元素