VPXD Failing to start. Failed to deserialize workflow transaction journal entry.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

vpxd service failed to start post unexpected service failure during a vmotion attempt 

vCenter service (vpxd) is unable to start and crashes repeatedly 
When attempting to start VPXD you will see an entry similar to the following in the /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log 

warning vpxd[35736] [Originator@6876 sub=VmProv] Failed to deserialize workflow transaction journal entry 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Cause

This is caused due to an incomplete journal record which prevents during the service from starting. 
The incomplete journal is caused due to unexpected restart of vpxd service or the vcenter server being abruptly rebooted during the middle of an operation like vmotion. 

Resolution

Manually remove the vpx_journal entries from the vCenter database

Note : Please take vCenter backup and snapshot of vCenter as per VMware vCenter in Enhanced Linked Mode pre-changes snapshot (online or offline) best practice

1. Login to vCenter via SSH as root user
2. Stop all vCenter services 
   service-control --stop --all
3. Start only the postgres service 
   service-control --start vpostgres
4. Truncate the table vpx_journal_entry and vpx_journal
   truncate table vpx_journal_entry
   delete from vpx_journal;
   Quit from vCenter database \q
5. Start all vCenter services 
   service-control --start --all