Error: Missing tag categories when assigning tags to virtual machines in VMware vCenter Server

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to assign tags to virtual machines (VMs) in the vCenter Server UI, newly created tag categories do not appear. This behavior prevents users from completing tag assignments even if the categories were successfully created.

Symptoms

• Newly created tag categories do not appear in the vCenter Server UI: Navigate to Menu > Tags & Custom Attributes > Click the Tags tab > Categories

• Unable to create or assign tags to VMs as the categories are missing from the selection menu. Refer How Do You Create and Edit a vSphere Tag

• Tag categories remain invisible when logged in as [email protected].

• In /var/log/vmware/vpxd-svcs/vpxd-svcs.log, the following entry is logged when the vpxd-svcs service enters a stopped state:

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss [Thread-## [] ERROR com.vmware.sync.GrpcUtils  opId=] *** shutting down gRPC server since JVM is shutting down
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss [Thread-## [] INFO  com.vmware.vim.vmomi.core.common.impl.BasicLifecycleManager  opId=] Stopping lifecycle listeners.
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss [Thread-## [] INFO  com.vmware.vim.vmomi.server.http.impl.TcServer  opId=] Stopping server.
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss [Thread-## [] ERROR com.vmware.sync.GrpcUtils  opId=] *** server shut down

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

A stopped or uninitialized vpxd-svcs service blocks the dependent tagging and inventory services from populating category data in the vCenter UI.

Resolution

Start the vpxd-svcs service manually and clear the browser state:

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

2. Verify the status of vpxd-svcs service: service-control --status vpxd-svcs

3. If the service is in stopped state, start it by running the following command: service-control --start vpxd-svcs 

4. Open a new incognito or private browser window.

5. Log in to the vSphere Client and verify that categories are visible and tags can be assigned to virtual machines.

Additional Information

• If the service fails to start, gather vCenter Server log files as per Collecting troubleshooting information for VMware vCenter Server and Conatct Broadcom support.