In this article by Chuck Mills, author of the book vCenter Troubleshooting, we will review some of the not-so-common vCenter issues that administrators could face while they work with the vSphere environment. The article will cover the following issues and provide the solutions:

• The vCenter inventory shows no objects after you log in
• You get the VPXD must be stopped to perform this operation message
• Removing the vCenter plugins when they are no longer needed

(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)

Solving the problem of no objects in vCenter

After successfully completing the vSphere 5.5 installation (not an upgrade) process with no error messages whatsoever, and logging in you log in to vCenter with the account you used for the installation. In this case, it is the local administrator account. Surprisingly, you are presented with an inventory of 0. The first thing is to make sure you have given vCenter enough time to start.

Considering the previously mentioned account was the account used to install vCenter, you would assume the account is granted appropriate rights that allow you to manage your vCenter Server. Also consider the fact that you can log in and receive no objects from vCenter. Then, you might try logging in with your domain administrator account. This makes you wonder, What is going on here?

After installing vCenter 5.5 using the Windows option, remember that the administrator@vsphere.local user will have administrator privileges for both the vCenter Single Sign-On Server and vCenter Server. You log in using the administrator@vsphere.local account with the password you defined during the installation of the SSO server:

vSphere attaches the permissions along with assigning the role of administrator to the default account administrator@vsphere.local. These privileges are given for both the vCenter Single Sign-On server and the vCenter Server system. You must log in with this account after the installation is complete.

After logging in with this account, you can configure your domain as an identity source. You can also give your domain administrator access to vCenter Server. Remember, the installation does not assign any administrator rights to the user account that was used to install vCenter. For additional information, review the Prerequisites for Installing vCenter Single Sign-On, Inventory Service, and vCenter Server document found at https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.install.doc%2FGUID-C6AF2766-1AD0-41FD-B591-75D37DDB281F.html.

Now that you understand what is going on with the vCenter account, use the following steps to enable the use of your Active Directory account for managing vCenter.

Add or verify your AD domain as an identity source using the following procedure:

1. Log in with administrator@vsphere.local.
2. Select Administration from the menu.
3. Choose Configuration under the Single Sign-On option.
   

   You will see the Single Sign-On | Configuration option only when you log in using the administrator@vsphere.local account.

4. Select the Identity Sources tab and verify that the AD domain is listed.
5. If not, choose Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication) found at the top of the window.
6. Enter your Domain name and click on OK at the bottom of the window.

   

7. Verify that your domain was added to Identity Sources, as shown in the following screenshot:

   

Add the permissions for the AD account using the following steps:

1. Click on Home at the top left of the window.
2. Select vCenter from the menu options.
3. Select vCenter Servers and then choose the vCenter Server object:

   

4. Select the Manage tab and then the Permissions tab found in the vCenter Object window. Review the image that follows the steps to verify the process.
   1. Click on the green + icon to add permission.
   2. Choose the Add button located at the bottom of the window.
   3. Select the AD domain found in the drop-down option at the top of the window.
   4. Choose a user or group you want to assign permission to (the account named Chuck was selected for this example).

      

5. Verify that the user or group is selected in the window.
6. Use the drop-down options to choose the level of permissions (verify that Propagate to children is checked).

   

7. Now, you should be able to log into vCenter with your AD account. See the results of the successful login in the following screenshot:

   

Now, by adding the permissions to the account, you are able to log into vCenter using your AD credentials. The preceding screenshot shows the results of the changes, which is much different than the earlier attempt.

Fixing the VPXD must be stopped to perform this operation message

It has been mentioned several times in this article that the Virtual Center Service Appliance (VCSA) is the direction VMware is moving in when it comes to managing vCenter. As the number of administrators using it keeps increasing, the number of problems will also increase. One of the components an administrator might have problems with is the Virtual Centre Server service. This service should not be running during any changes to the database or the account settings. However, as with most vSphere components, there are times when something happens and you need to stop or start a service in order to fix the problem.

There are times when an administrator who works within the VCSA appliance encounters the following error:

This service can be stopped using the web console, by performing the following steps:

1. Log into the console using https://ip-of-vcsa:5480. Enter your username and password:

   

2. Choose vCenter Server after logging in.
3. Make sure the Summary tab is selected.
4. Click on the Stop button to stop the server:

   

This should work most of the time, but if you find that using the web console is not working, then you need to log into the VCSA appliance directly and use the following procedure to stop the server:

1. Connect to the appliance by using an SSH client such as Putty or mRemote.
2. Type the command chkconfig.
3. This will list all the services and their current status:

   

4. Verify that vmware-vxpd is on:

   

5. You can stop the server by using service vmware-vpxd stop command:

   

After completing your work, you can start the server using one of the following methods:

• Restart the VCSA appliance
• Use the web console by clicking on the Start button on the vCenter Summary page
• Type service vmware-vpxd start on the SSH command line

This should fix the issues that occur when you see the VPXD must be stopped to perform this operation message.

Removing unwanted plugins in vSphere

Administrators add and remove tools from their environment based on the needs and also the life of the tool. This is no different for the vSphere environment. As the needs of the administrator change, so does the usage of the plugins used in vSphere. The following section can be used to remove any unwanted plugins from your current vCenter. So, if you have lots of plugins and they are no longer needed, use the follow procedure to remove them:

1. Log into your vCenter using http://vCenter_name or IP_address/mob and enter your username and password:

   

2. Click on the content link under Properties:

   

3. Click on ExtensionManager, which is found in the VALUE column:

   

4. Highlight, right-click, and Copy the extension to be removed.
   

   Check out the Knowledge Base 1025360 found at http://Kb.vmware.com/kb/1025360 to get an overview of the plugins and their names.

   

5. Select UnregisterExtension near the bottom of the page:

   

6. Right-click on the plugin name and Paste it into the Value field:

   

7. Click on Invoke Method to remove the plugin:

   

This will give you the Method Invocation Result: void message. This message informs you that the selected plugin has been removed.

You can repeat this process for each plugin that you want to remove.

Summary

In this article, we covered some of the not-so-common challenges an administrator could encounter in the vSphere environment. It provided the troubleshooting along with the solutions to the following issues:

• Seeing NO objects after logging into vCenter with the account you used to install it
• How to get past the VPXD must be stopped error when you are performing certain tasks within vCenter
• Removing the unwanted plugins from vCenter Server

Resources for Article:

Further resources on this subject:

• Availability Management [article]
• The Design Documentation [article]
• Design, Install, and Configure [article]