Error 1067 unable to start the VMware Virtual center Server Service

Error 1067  unable to start the VMware Virtual center Server Service

I got a call that our Vcenter server  is not working. and I felt ohh thats it….let me start the Vcenter service. I noticed vcenter service was not started and i tried to start the service, it is throwing the below error.

“Windows Could not start the VMware VirtualCenter service on local computer. Error 1067: the process terminated unexpectedly”

I wont say the below is the standard to follow to troubleshoot the issue. It was the approach which i used to resolve the above issue.

Troubleshooting Step 1:

 My first place to troubleshoot the Vcenter service failure is “vpxd.log” on the below location

Windows 2003 – C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs

Windows 2008 – C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs”

In VPXD logs, i found the below error

[2012-06-05 03:57:53.047 08104 error 'App'] Failed reading C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\vpxd.cfg. Line 33. class Vmacore::Xml::XMLParseException(mismatched tag)

[ 2012-06-05  03:57:53.047 08104 error 'App'] [VpxdMain] Failed to init vmacore

From the above Log, I noticed the line telling me something about the cause for this issue.

Failed reading C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\vpxd.cfg. Line 33. class Vmacore::Xml::XMLParseException(mismatched tag)

There is a  tag mismatched on the “vpxd.cfg” file. which is not allowing to start my vcenter service.

Troubleshooting Step 2:

I have started my investigation into my Vcenter server configuration file “Vpxd.cfg” and the error messge telling me that Line 33 is culprit so, I started targetting my line towards 30 to 35 in “vpxd.cfg” file.

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First, it looks like the culprit is the below line.

Tried to start the service But no luck again failed and the error message in the vpxd log is different this time

“the Duplicate loop error”

Troubleshhoting Step 3:

Again  my target is Vcenter configuration file “Vpxd.cfg”

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This time found the issue  and the issue is because of the loop # and # appears twice in Vcenter configuration file.Removed the extra loop and started the service. It started sucessfully and i am safe.

The issue appeared because of the configuration file of vcenter  was edited as part of standard hardening but edited with the wrong format sometime before and my server was rebooted as part of patching process.Configuration changes takes effect if you restart the Virtual center service. After the reboot, My Vcenter server service was not started.

Thanks for reading this article