How to disable a vCenter service

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

An administrator may need to disable a non-critical vCenter service from starting up. This guide will outline how to do so using vmon-cli, the service management interface within the VCSA.

You should not perform the actions in this KB without prior guidance from a Broadcom Support Engineer.

Environment

vCenter Server Appliance

Resolution

The usage of vmon-cli is as follows:

root@hostname [ ~ ]# vmon-cli
Invalid usage of the command.
Usage: /usr/lib/vmware-vmon/vmon-cli [options]

Options:
  -c, --vmonserver <file>  vMon server connection path.
  -i, --start <serviceid><,serviceid>  Start service(s).
  -k, --stop <serviceid><,serviceid>   Stop service(s).
  -r, --restart <serviceid> Restart Service.
  -s, --status <serviceid> Get Service status.
  -d, --dumpcore <serviceid> Dump service process core.
  -D, --dumpstack <serviceid> Dump service process stack.
  -U, --update <serviceid> Update service state.
  -S  --starttype <MANUAL|AUTOMATIC|DISABLED> Requires -U option.
  -R  --runasuser <Username> Requires -U option.
  -l, --list               List registered services.
  --list-dependencies <serviceid> List service dependencies.
  --batchstart <profile> Start all services in profile.
  --batchstop  <profile> Stop all services in profile.
  --refreshhealth          Refreshes health state of all services.
  --ignorefail             Ignore batch operation failures.
  --dumpstat             Dump stat info without reboot.
  -h                       Print help information.

 

- List all services with the "-l" flag

- Check service dependencies with the "--list-dependencies" flag

- Stop the service with the "-k" flag

- Disable the service like so:

vmon-cli -S DISABLED -U <service_name>