- Scenario#1: Logon to Virtual Center Server Fails with generic error “Unable to connect to remote server”
- Isolate if it’s a Networking issue
- adfind – Ensure the server name is typed correctly and is a valid Windows server in AD using adfind
- ping – Ensure the remote vCenter server is reachable using ping
- nslookup – Ensure the DNS entries are correct for the server by doing a nslo0kup
- FQDN – use FQDN JIC if some DNS Zones entries issues is around causing the network connectivity
- Isolate if it’s a Windows server issue
- telnet to 443 – Check the connectivity to the vCenter web service to ensure web service at least responding
- sc query “vmware virtualcentre server” – Ensure that the VMware virtualcentre server service is running fine
- eventvwr – check if there are any vcenter errors in application log or service/system errors in system log
- vpxd.exe – check the vpxd log file %ALLUSERSPROFILE%VMwarevmware virtualcentreLogsvpxd-#.log”
- Attempt to start the service if it’s not running
- If service fails with error, correlate it with the log statements in vpxd log files
- Isolate if it’s a DB connectivity issue
- In case if there are any ODBC errors in vpxd log file follow below steps according to the error message “usually authentication errors”
- if the DB used is a locally installed SQlExpress version or Access DB, verify that the SQL Server DB service is running fine
- If the DB is a remote SQL/Oracle DB, check the reachability to the server
- Open the ODBC Manager and very the DSN entry and test the connectivity to the server
- In case of authentication issues, try to use
- the other login account or
- attempt with “Integrated Windows authentication”
- If still there is any issue, correlate the issue with SQL authentication/security and DB logging
- Once all the issues are isolated and if it’s indeed DB connection issues that got fixed, then attempt to start the “vmware virtualcentre server” service on vCenter server.
- Isolate if it’s a Networking issue
