If you experience an ungraceful shutdown of the database (for
example, because of a power outage), you may experience these symptoms:
- The VMware VirtualCenter Server service fails to start.
- ODBC connection to the database tests successfully with the specified
user.
- The
vpxd.log file (located
at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\VMware\VirtualCenter\logs) contains entries similar
to:
[02896 error ‘App‘] ODBC error: (28000) - [Microsoft][SQL
Native Client][SQL Server]Login failed for user ‘vmware_user‘.
[02896 error
‘App‘] Error getting configuration info from the database
[02896 error
‘App‘] [Vpxd::ServerApp::Init] Init failed: VpxdVdb::InitVdb::GetInstance(),
false, false)
[02896 error ‘App‘] Failed to intialize VMware VirtualCenter.
Shutting down...
[02896 info ‘App‘] Forcing shutdown of VMware
VirtualCenter now
This is a rare issue that occurs if a password is corrupted by an ungraceful
shutdown (for example, due to a power outage). With a graceful shutdown,
Windows saves everything that was in cache to disk, but when an operating system
shuts down unexpectedly, settings can be lost or corrupted. The password can get
corrupted if the registry is being accessed at the time of the outage.
This issue occurs even if:
- The integrity of the database has been verified.
- The SQL permissions have been verified and set properly.
- The connection information (including password) is present and correct in
the registry key:
-
32-bit operating
systems: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware
VirtualCenter\DB
-
64-bit operating
systems: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\wow6432node\VMware,
Inc.\VMware VirtualCenter\DB
To resolve this issue, you must change the password.
To change the password:
- Open a command prompt. For more information, see Opening a command or shell prompt (1003892).
-
Change to the directory containing the VMware VirtualCenter Server service
executable vpxd.exe (typically located
at C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter
Server). If vpxd.exe is not at that path:
- Click Start > Run,
type services.msc, and
click OK.
- Right-click the VMware VirtualCenter Server
Service and click Properties. The path
to
vpxd.exe is on the General
tab.
- When you have verified the location of
vpxd.exe, run
this command in the appropriate directory to change the password in the
registry:
vpxd -p
- To start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service,
right-click VMware VirtualCenter Server service and
click Start.
