vSAN health service fails to start on vCenter Server — article index

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• The vmware-vsan-health service on vCenter Server fails to start or remain running.
• The vSAN health, monitoring, and administration views do not appear in the vSphere Client.
• You see an error similar to:

  An error occurred while starting service 'vsan-health'
  

• VAMI-based backup jobs fail with a message similar to:

  Invalid vCenter Server Status: All required services are not up! Stopped services: 'vsan-health'
  

• vSphere Replication or Site Recovery Manager operations fail due to the service being unavailable.
  
  

This article helps you identify which specific article applies to your situation. Use the log evidence and symptoms in the table below to find the correct resolution.

Environment

• VMware vCenter Server 6.7 and later

Resolution

vCenter Version Affected	Article	Key Symptoms	Distinguishing Notes
6.7	vSAN-Health Service fails to start	Service fails to start; VAMI backup and vSphere Replication fail with 503; PermissionError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted in /var/log/vmware/vsan-health/vmware-vsan-health-runtime.log.stderr	Most likely after upgrading to 6.7 U3 with vsan-health disabled before the upgrade; Site Recovery Manager operations also affected
6.7	vmware-vsan-health service fails to start after update to vCenter 6.7U3 with Error : Validation of VMOMI server version got from provider failed	Service fails to start after update to 6.7 U3; VAMI backup fails; FileIONotFoundExceptionE for /etc/vmware-vsan-health/.cns_pgpass in /var/log/vmware/vsan-health/vmware-vsan-health-service.log; Validation of VMOMI server version got from provider failed in /var/log/vmware/vmware-sps/sps.log	Non-VCHA environments; same underlying .cns_pgpass cause as 326836 but different trigger context
6.7	vSAN Health service fails to start after performing vCenter upgrade	Service fails to start after upgrade in a VCHA configuration; VASA/SMS provider registration fails; adding a VM disk fails with a PBM error; ProviderRegistrationFault in /var/log/vmware/vsan-health/vsanvp.log; .cns_pgpass error in /var/log/vmware/vsan-health/vmware-vsan-health-service.log	Specific to VCHA configurations; same underlying .cns_pgpass cause as KB 316413
8.0.x	vmware-vsan-health service fails to start | FATAL: password authentication failed for user "cns"	Service fails to start and dumps core; core.vsanvcmgmtd files appear under /var/core; FATAL: password authentication failed for user "cns" in /var/log/vmware/vsan-health/vsanvcmgmtd.log; User "cns" has no password assigned in /var/log/vmware/vpostgres/postgresql.log	CNS user missing from pg_hba.conf or has no password set in VCDB
8.0.x	vmware-updatemgr and vmware-vsan-health services fails to start on vCenter Server 8.0	vSAN Health tab reports service not running; service repeatedly fails to log into VC; cannot bind '0.0.0.0:80': Address already in use in /var/log/vmware/envoy/envoy.log; Failed to log into VC in /var/log/vmware/vsan-health/vmware-vsan-health-service.log	httpd process is holding port 80 and preventing Envoy from binding it; vmware-updatemgr service also affected
8.0.x	vSAN-Health Service times out and fails to start on vCenter server	Service times out on start; vCenter is using an external CA-signed SSL certificate; sslv3 alert certificate expired in /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log; code: 526 (Invalid SSL Certificate) in /var/log/vmware/vsan-health/vsanvcmgmtd.log	Broken or expired root/intermediate CA certificate chain in /etc/vmware-vpx/ssl/rui.crt; only occurs when using custom CA-signed certs
8.0.x	vmware-vsan service stops abruptly and fails to start with the following error "An error occurred while starting service '%(0)s'"	Service stops abruptly and fails to restart; envoy overloaded in /var/log/vmware/vpxd-svcs/vpxd-svcs.log; high count of 503 overload entries in /var/log/vmware/envoy/envoy-access-*	Memory exhaustion in envoy-sidecar; distinguishable from KB 395218 by the envoy overloaded message; fixed in vCenter Server 8.0 U3g
8.0.x	vSAN Health Service will not start and does not display any of the vSAN health/monitoring or administration insider of the vCenter GUI	Service fails to start after a restart or reboot; vSAN views absent from vSphere Client; PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied on vmware-vsan-health.pid in /var/log/vmware/vsan-health/vmware-vsan-health.log	Stale .pid file from a previous service run; no upgrade trigger; distinct from 318854 which is Errno 1 in a different log file

Additional Information

• For guidance on starting, stopping, and checking the status of vCenter services, see Starting, Stopping, and Checking the Status of Services on a vCenter Server Appliance.
• For information on vSAN health monitoring, see the vSAN Monitoring and Troubleshooting documentation.