ESXi Fails to Join Active Directory when lwsmd Service is Unresponsive or Fails to Start

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

ESXi fails to join the Active Directory (AD) domain. Attempting to start the Likewise Service Manager Daemon ( Lwsmd ) fails and returns LW_ERROR_NO_SUCH_SERVICE or unresponsive service errors.

The following symptoms are observed:

• Domain join operations fail with the following errors:  ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND [code 0x00000002]

• Execution of the command /usr/lib/vmware/likewise/bin/lwsm list reveals that Likewise services (such as lsass, lwio, and netlogon) are in a stopped or dead state.

  • /usr/lib/vmware/likewise/bin/lwsm list
lwreg       running (sm: #######)
eventlog    stopped
lsass       stopped
lwio        stopped
netlogon    dead
    

    rdr         stopped

• Manual initialization of the lwsmd service fails, outputting the following error: Error: LW_ERROR_SERVICE_UNRESPONSIVE (41203)

  • /etc/init.d/lwsmd start
[starting lsass service] Starting service dependency: netlogon
Error: LW_ERROR_SERVICE_UNRESPONSIVE (41203)
The service is not responding to requests
Failed to query status from LSA service.  Error code 2 (ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND).

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

The Likewise registry database ( /etc/likewise/db/registry.db ) contains unexpected or inconsistent entries that prevent the lwsmd service from initializing correctly.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, the corrupted database file must be replaced with a healthy file from a functional ESXi host.

Note: The functional ESXi host utilized for this procedure must be running the exact same version and build number as the affected host.

1. Stop the Likewise service.

   • /etc/init.d/lwsmd stop

2. Identify any stale lwsmd processes: 

   • ps | grep lwsm
     
     The first column is the Parent ID

3. If processes persist, terminate them:

   • kill -9 ####.

4. A functional ESXi host running the identical build must be identified.

5. On the functional host, the healthy database file must be located at /etc/likewise/db/registry.db and copied to a temporary location using a secure file transfer protocol (e.g., SCP or WinSCP).

6. On the affected host, the corrupted database file must be backed up by renaming it. This can be achieved by executing the following command:

   • mv /etc/likewise/db/registry.db /etc/likewise/db/registry.db.bak

7. The healthy registry.db file extracted in Step 3 must be transferred into the /etc/likewise/db/ directory on the affected host.

8. The file permissions and ownership on the transferred file must be verified to match the original settings.

   • chmod 600 /etc/likewise/db/registry.db

9. Restart lwsmd service. 

   • /etc/init.d/lwsmd restart

10. Verify that all likewise service are started correctly

    • /usr/lib/vmware/likewise/bin/lwsm  list
      
      

11. Once the host is online or services are restarted, the domain join operation must be retried.

    • Configuring the ESXi host with Active Directory authentication