vSphere UI Service Fails to Start with Exit Code 254.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• The vsphere-ui service fails to start on the vCenter Server Appliance. The service initialization aborts almost immediately during startup, causing the vSphere Client to be inaccessible.
• The vSphere Web Client login page will display the error: 'vSphere Client service has stopped working.

• The vCenter Server certificate renewal process may fail during the service startup phase.
• The following error signatures are observed in the service logs:

    /var/log/vmware/vmon/vmon.log

    YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(05) host-#### Received start request for vsphere-uiredirect std-stream. Error: No such file or directory
    YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS Wa(03) host-#### <vsphere-ui> Service exited. Exit code 254
    YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS Wa(03) host-#### [ReadSvcSubStartupData] No startup information from vsphere-ui.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Cause

This behavior is triggered when the /var/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/log directory cannot be located.

Resolution

• Log in to the affected vCenter Server Appliance via SSH using root credentials.
• Re-create the missing directory structure
• Use the following steps to recreate the logs folder and set the required permissions:
• Run the below commands and start the vSphere-ui service:

cd /var/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/
mkdir logs
chown -R vsphere-ui:root logs/
service-control --start vsphere-ui
Operation not cancellable. Please wait for it to finish...
Performing start operation on service vsphere-ui...
Successfully started service vsphere-ui