The SPS service fails to start with following error message during the startup attempt: "Service Get State request failed. Error: Invalid input data."

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Below error message is observed when the service status is validated using following command: service-control -- status -- all

Error: Service name "sps" is invalid.
Running:
applmgmt lookupsvc lwsmd observability observability-vapi pschealth vlcm vmafdd vmcad vmdird vmonapi vmware-analytics vmware-
certificateauthority vmware-certificatemanagement vmware-cis-license vmware-content-library vmware-eam vmware-envoy vmware-hvc
vmware-infraprofile vmware-perfcharts vmware-postgres-archiver vmware-rhttpproxy vmware-sca vmware-statsmonitor vmware-stsd v
mware-topologysvc vmware-trustmanagement vmware-updatemgr vmware-vapi-endpoint vmware-vdtc vmware-vmon vmware-vpostgres vmware
-vpxd vmware-vpxd-svcs vmware-vsan-health vmware-vsm vsphere-ui vstats vtsdb wcp
Stopped:
vmcam vmware-imagebuilder vmware-netdumper vmware-pod vmware-rbd-watchdog vmware-vcha

• Manual attempt to start sps service using the following command fails with below error message : service-control -- start vmware-sps

Operation not cancellable. Please wait for it to finish ...
Performing start operation on service sps ...
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ Error: Invalid input provided to get startType ofservice sps.
Error executing start on service sps. Details Error: startType of svc: sps rc : 6 stdout: stderr: Service Get State request failed. Error: Invalid input data

Service-control failed. Error: Error: startType of svc: sps rc : 6 stdout: stderr: Service Get State request failed. Error: Invalid input data

• Below error message is observed in /var/log/vmware/vmon/vmon.log :

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ| host-#####| I005: Received start request for sps
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ| host-#####| I005: <sps-prestart> Constructed command: /usr/lib/vmware-vpx/sps/conf/pre_start.sh
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ| host-#####| E002: [Child 11475] Entry corresponding to user sps not found
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ| host-#####| E002: <sps> Service pre-start command failed with exit code 254.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ| host-#####| W003: [ReadSvcSubStartupData] No startup information from sps.

Environment

• VMware vCenter Server 7.x 

Cause

• The SPS service was rendered invalid due to a misconfigured or corrupted sps.json file located in /etc/vmware/vmware-vmon/svcCfgfiles.

Resolution

Replace the /etc/vmware/vmware-vmon/svcCfgfiles/sps.json file to resolve the issue:

• Download the sps.json file provided in this article and upload it to vCenter Server (/var/core)

  • Use sps_7.0U2.json file for vCenter version 7.0U2x.

  • Use sps_7.0U3.json file for vCenter version 7.0U3x

• Backup the existing sps.json file:

  • mv /etc/vmware/vmware-vmon/svcCfgfiles/sps.json /var/core/sps.json.bak

• Copy the sps.json from /var/core to /etc/vmware/vmware-vmon/svcCfgfiles :

  • cp /var/core/sps.json  /etc/vmware/vmware-vmon/svcCfgfiles/

• Assign the required permissions:

  • chmod 755 /etc/vmware/vmware-vmon/svcCfgfiles/sps.json

• Restarted all the vCenter services :

  • service-control --stop --all && service-control --start --all