The VMware VirtualCenter Server service fails to start with an Error code 2

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The VMware VirtualCenter Server service fails to start.
• The Event Viewer shows the error:
  
  Windows could not start VMware Virtual Center Service. Error code 2
  
• The vpxd logs show errors similar to:
  
  2010-01-18 10:06:42.418 03428 info 'App'] [Vpxd::ServerApp::Init:760] Calling: VpxdLdap::Init()
  [2010-01-18 10:06:42.434 03428 info 'App'] [LdapBackup] Making sure LDAP instance VMwareVCMSDS is running
  [2010-01-18 10:06:42.434 03428 info 'App'] [LdapBackup] Attempting to start service ADAM_VMwareVCMSDS...
  [2010-01-18 10:06:42.434 03428 info 'App'] [LdapBackup] Service started
  [2010-01-18 10:06:54.434 03428 error 'App'] [LDAP Client] Failed to connect to LDAP: 0x52 (Local error occurred.)
  [2010-01-18 10:06:54.434 03428 error 'App'] [VpxdLdap] Failed to authenticate to LDAP. There is a misconfiguration of the LDAP server ("LDAP error 0x52: Local error occurred."). This may be due to invalid credentials, or to a problem with connectivity to a domain controller, if this machine belongs to a domain and VMware VirtualCenter is running as the LocalSystem account.
  [2010-01-18 10:06:54.434 03428 error 'App'] [Vpxd::ServerApp::Init] Init failed: VpxdLdap::Init()
  [2010-01-18 10:06:54.434 03428 error 'App'] Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down...
  [2010-01-18 10:06:54.434 03428 info 'App'] Forcing shutdown of VMware VirtualCenter now

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x

Resolution

This issue occurs when vCenter Server is installed on a machine that is part of an Active Directory domain, but while the VirtualCenter Server service is being started, the domain relationship is not working. The domain relationship may not be working because the domain controller is down, because of a network connectivity issue, or because the domain relationship for the machine is not valid anymore.

If the machine on which vCenter Server is installed is part of an Active Directory domain, the relationship must be healthy.

To resolve this issue:

1. Verify that the vCenter Server can resolve the FQDN of the Active Directory server using the nslookup command in a Windows command prompt.
2. Ensure that the Active Directory server is running and accessible from the vCenter Server machine.

If you are aware of a specific issue with your Active Directory server / services, and those are being worked on by another organizational unit as a temporary workaround you can adjust the logon settings in the VMware VirtualCenter service properties not to use the Local system account and configure it to use another account for example, specify the username as Administrator and provide the appropriate password.

Start the VMware VirtualCenter service first, then start the VMware Management Webservices (you can leave the logon settings for the Management Webservices service as Local system account, as this is just a temporary workaround). Remember that any vCenter functions that normally rely on the Active Directory to work, will still fail, but you will be able to perform activities that are not dependent on the Active Directory such as vMotion.

Additional Information

In addition ensure that you check all network connections, and that the username and password that is connected to your vCenter Server database is correct. Network connection issues, and user account authentication problems can cause the above symptoms as well.エラー コード 2 で VMware VirtualCenter Server サービスの起動に失敗する
VMware VirtualCenter Server 服务启动失败，并显示错误代码 2