HTTP 503 error when accessing vCenter Server running on Windows Vista or 2008

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

On a vCenter Server running on Windows Vista or Windows 2008, you see these symptoms:

• Under a heavy load, some of the operations invoked on the vCenter Server fails.
• You see an error similar to:
  
  503 Service Temporarily Unavailable.
   
• The vpxd.log file contain entries similar to:
  
  2011-08-28T15:00:42.452-07:00 [08152 warning 'Default'] Failed to connect socket; <io_obj p:0x0000000047d7a140, h:388128, <TCP '0.0.0.0:54614'>, <TCP '127.0.0.1:8085'>>, e: system:10060(A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond)
  2011-08-28T15:00:42.452-07:00 [08152 warning 'ProxySvc Req59728'] Connection to localhost:8085 failed with error class Vmacore::SystemException(A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond).
   
• Running the netstat -an command on the vCenter Server command prompt displays entries similar to:
  
    TCP    [::1]:53798            [::1]:8085             TIME_WAIT
    TCP    [::1]:53807            [::1]:8085             TIME_WAIT
    TCP    [::1]:53835            [::1]:8085             TIME_WAIT
    TCP    [::1]:53938            [::1]:8085             TIME_WAIT
    TCP    [::1]:53940            [::1]:8085             TIME_WAIT
    
  Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x

Resolution

Cause

The issue occurs due to a problem in the Windows TCP stack.

To resolve this issue and for a list of operating systems affected by this issue, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 950319 and install the appropriate hotfix associated with it.

You may experience similar issues seen in Windows 2008 R2. To resolve the issue in Windows 2008 R2, install the Microsoft hotfix 2577795.

Important: Windows Vista support has ended. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 22882.

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Additional Information

VMware vCenter Server tasks may fail with error: Unable to read data from the transport connection (1032561).