Error: Unable to start VMware vSphere ESXi Dump Collector service due to missing symbolic link

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• The vmware-netdumper service shows as "Stopped" in the VAMI or service-control.
• Attempts to start the service manually result in a timeout.
• The vmon.log (located at /var/log/vmware/vmon/vmon.log) contains the following traces: Service start operation timed out. Services netdumper failed to start on vMon startup. ErrCode 1 Failed to read json config /etc/vmware/vmware-vmon/svcCfgfiles/jmx

Environment

• VMware vCenter Server Appliance 8.x
• VMware vCenter Server Appliance 7.x

Cause

The symbolic link mapping /var/core/netdumps to the dedicated /storage/netdump partition is missing or was recreated as a standard directory. This causes a path mismatch and permission block that prevents the netdumper daemon from passing its health check.

Resolution

Restore the correct symbolic link and permissions by executing the following commands in a root SSH session:

CRITICAL NOTE: Before proceeding with these steps, you must take a snapshot of the vCenter Server (preferably offline or without virtual machine memory) to ensure you have a safe rollback point.

1. Remove the incorrect standard directory: rm -rf /var/core/netdumps

2. Re-establish the symbolic link to the dedicated storage partition: ln -s /storage/netdump /var/core/netdumps

3. Apply correct ownership to the storage target: chown netdumper:netdumper /storage/netdump

4. Apply matching ownership to the symbolic link: chown -h netdumper:netdumper /var/core/netdumps

5. Start the service: service-control --start vmware-netdumper

Additional Information

If the service still fails to start, verify that the start type is not set to "Disabled": vmon-cli -s netdumper If it is disabled, run: vmon-cli -S MANUAL -U netdumper