vCenter service vmware-vapi-endpoint failed to start with "Connect to localhost:1080 ... ... Connection refused"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• Unable to access the vCenter UI and upon checking the service-control --status --all stuck at vmware-vapi-endpoint and other services stopped
  
  
• From /var/log/vmware/vapi/endpoint/endpoint.log:
  
  Caused by: com.vmare.vim.vmomi.client.exception.ConnectionException: http://localhost1080/sso-adminserver/system-sdk invocation failed with "org.apache.http.conn.HttpHostConnectException: Connect to localhost:1080 [localhost/127.0.0.1] failed: Connection refused (Connection refused)"


• From /var/log/vmware/vmon/vmon.log:

Adding service rhttpproxy.
Startup type of service content-library is AUTOMATIC while startup type of dependent service rhttpproxy is MANUAL.
... ...
Startup type of service vsphere-ui is AUTOMATIC while startup type of dependent service rhttpproxy is MANUAL.

•       Command "vmon-cli -s rhttpproxy" shows Starttype: MANUAL

Cause

The rhttpproxy (VMware HTTP Reverse Proxy) service is the entry point for almost all vCenter traffic. If its startup type is set to MANUAL, it will not start automatically during a reboot.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, change the rhttpproxy startup type back to AUTOMATIC and restart the vCenter services.

1. Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) via SSH as the root user.
2. Change the startup type for the Reverse Proxy service: vmon-cli -S AUTOMATIC -U rhttpproxy
3. Verify the change to ensure it is now set to AUTOMATIC: vmon-cli -s rhttpproxy
4. Restart all vCenter services to bring the environment back online: service-control --stop --all && service-control --start --all

Additional Information

Setting vCenter server services start up type to Manual/Automatic mode via either Command line or VAMI Page