My Openfiler SAN died and the virtual machine with Virtual Center Server needed to be reboot. After reboot
the “VMWare VirtualCenter Server” service failed to start with following error message:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: VMware VirtualCenter Server
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 7/14/2009
Time: 10:00:42 AM
User: N/A
Computer: VC
Description:
The description for Event ID ( 1000 ) in Source ( VMware VirtualCenter Server ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down….

VMWare Virtual Center Application eventlog events

I went to  to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs and opened latest vpxd-XX.log file. I found the following error in mine:

 

[2009-07-14 10:00:42.480 'App' 3976 info] [VpxLRO] 600-second task lifetime

[2009-07-14 10:00:42.480 'App' 3976 error] [VpxdCertificate] Failed: cannot open certificate file: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\ssl\rui.crt

[2009-07-14 10:00:42.480 'App' 3976 error] Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter. Shutting down…

[2009-07-14 10:00:42.480 'App' 3976 info] Forcing shutdown of VMware VirtualCenter now

I tried to locate the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\ssl folder but it was simply not there; than searched for rui.crt in C:\ and found two other directories with similar certificate in:

  • C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Converter Enterprise\ssl
  • C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Update Manager\SSL

 I copied C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Converter Enterprise\ssl to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\ssl\ and started “VMware VirtualCenter Server” service again. Now the service was successfully started. Login with VMWare Virtual Infrastructure client and connect your ESX hosts again.

 

For more information on the CA issue you can read here: