vCenter Appliance is running low on memory due to wcp service

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

The Workload Control Plane (wcp) service is experiencing excessive memory consumption.This high utilization creates significant resource contention and risks overall vCenter instability.

The service appears to be stuck in an inefficient processing loop, characterized by high-frequency logging and repetitive, complex database interactions.

Upon checking top command, we see wcp consuming most of the vCenter Server's memory consumption. 

Environment

vCenter 8.x

Cause

The root cause is a memory leak and inefficient data processing loop within the Workload Control Plane service's internal cache management. In affected versions of vCenter 8.0, the service repeatedly triggers complex SQL queries against the kube_config_maps table to parse metadata across multiple cluster domains, failing to effectively clear or manage the resulting data in memory.

Resolution

Permanent Fix

Upgrade vCenter Server to version 8.0 Update 3g (8.0P06) or later. This version contains the specific fix for wcpsvc memory management and database query optimization.

Workaround (Immediate Mitigation)

If an upgrade cannot be performed immediately, restart the WCP service to clear the leaked memory and reset the processing loop:

1. Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) via SSH as root.

2. Execute the following command: service-control --restart wcp