Can no longer connect to vSphere Web Client

[BobAgi]

We are running two ESX hosts and I can connect to each of them using the vSphere Client, but I always get a pop-up message saying:

"This host is currently being managed by the vCenter Server  with IP

address 10.0.0.224. Changes made to this host during this session may

not be reflected in vSphere Client sessions currently viewing the

vCenter Server."

But when I try to connect to the vSphere Web Client I get a message on the login screen as follows:

"Cannot connect to vCenter Single Sign-On server https://vcenter.mydomain.com:7444/sts/STSService/vsphere.local."

A few weeks ago this worked fine and I could log on and create a new virtual machine via the Web Client.

I am using FireFox 59.0.1 (64-bit) and I downloaded and installed the "Client Integration Plugin" as suggested on the bottom of the login screen, but once finished it does not show up in the FireFox Add-Ons and the login failure still persists.

I also tried to use Chrome but that will not allow me to use the Flash plugin which seems to be required by the Web Client.

With FireFox there is a dialog shown when I go to the page where I have to enable Flash to continue.

The ESX host I can connect to using the vSphere Client application reports its version as

VMWare ESXi, 5.5.0, 2068190

Note:

If I connect to the ESX host with the vSphere Client I can select the "VMware vCenter Server Appliance" and open the Console tab and there I see an URL, which leads to the same IP but port 5480, which I can open.

This shows a login page (without any Flash use) and here I can log in using my known credentials!

Once inside I see a tabbed page but I have no knowledge about what this is for so I cannot use it.

But it shows that my login credentials are correct at least!

So:

Why has the vSphere Web Client stopped working?

[Yuva_1990]

Hi

The port number 5480 is for VAMI connection.Can you please make sure web client service is running on the appliance

Regards

Yuvaraj

[Yuva_1990]

Hi

It would be great if you can run the following command by logging in to VCSA using ssh and share the output

service-control --status --all

Regards

Yuvaraj

[BobAgi]

Ok thanks,

I have PuTTY on my laptop (Win7).

So I connected to 10.0.0.224:22 using PuTTY.

This is what happened:

login as: root

VMware vCenter Server Appliance

Using keyboard-interactive authentication.

Password:

Last login: Thu Mar 22 16:52:26 2018 from 10.0.0.80

vcenter:~ # service-control --status --all

-bash: service-control: command not found

vcenter:~ #

So I am missing something basic....

On my Linux systems there is usually no such message, but I usually do not connect as root either.

[SureshKumarMuth]

Above command is not applicable for VCSA 5.5.

Please run this command and share the output

service –-status-all

[BobAgi]

vcenter:~ # service –-status-all

service: no such service –-status-all

vcenter:~ #

No luck...

But this worked:

vcenter:~ # service -s

Checking for httpd2:                                                                                                   unused

Checking for service arpd                                                                                              unused

Checking for service atftp:                                                                                            unused

Checking for service auditd                                                                                            running

Usage: /etc/init.d/autoyast {start|stop}

Checking if boot.cgroup has run                                                                                        running

                                                                                                                       running

Current Hardware Clock: Thu Mar 22 17:53:32 2018  -1.049973 seconds                                                    running

                                                                                                                       running

...                                                                                                                   unused

...                                                                                                                   unused

                                                                                                                       running

                                                                                                                       unknown

                                                                                                                       unknown

checking if boot.ipconfig has been run                                                                                 running

                                                                                                                       running

                                                                                                                       running

Checking if boot.loadmodules has run                                                                                   running

Checking if boot.localfs has run                                                                                       running

                                                                                                                       running

                                                                                                                       unknown

                                                                                                                       running

MD RAID arrays: No arrays active                                                                                       unused

Checking multipath targets:                                                                                            unused

                                                                                                                       running

Checking if boot.rootfsck has run                                                                                      running

                                                                                                                       running

                                                                                                                       unknown

Checking for service sysstat:                                                                                          running

Checking for udevd:                                                                                                    running

                                                                                                                       running

Checking for Cron:                                                                                                     running

Checking for service D-Bus daemon                                                                                      running

                                                                                                                       unused

                                                                                                                       unused

Checking for ISC DHCPv4 4.x Server:                                                                                    unused

Checking for ISC DHCPv6 4.x Server:                                                                                    unused

Checking for service syslog:                                                                                           running

running (standalone: 27183)

Neither the variables MOUSEDEVICE and MOUSETYPE nor the variable GPM_PARAM

is set in /etc/sysconfig/mouse

Run 'yast mouse' to set up gpm

Checking for service HAL daemon                                                                                        running

Checking for haveged daemon                                                                                            running

Checking for service irqbalance                                                                                        running

Keymap /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty/us.map.gz is loaded.

Checking for service ldap:                                                                                             running

running (standalone: 3118)

Usage: /etc/init.d/lvm_wait_merge_snapshot {start}

running (standalone: 2734)

running (standalone: 1275)

                                                                                                                       running

Checking for service mdadmd                                                                                            unused

Checking for multipathd:                                                                                               unused

running (standalone: 2778)

Checking optional network interfaces:

    eth0      device: VMware VMXNET3 Ethernet Controller

    eth0      IP address: 10.0.0.224/24

    eth0      is up                                                                                                    running

Checking mandatory network interfaces:

    lo

    lo        IP address: 127.0.0.1/8

    secondary lo IP address: 127.0.0.2/8

    lo        is up                                                                                                    running

Checking service network .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .                                                               running

Checking mandatory network interfaces:

    lo

    lo        IP address: 127.0.0.1/8

    secondary lo IP address: 127.0.0.2/8

    lo        is up                                                                                                    running

Checking service (remotefs) network .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .                                                    running

Checking for mounted nfs shares (from /etc/fstab):idmapd not running

                                                                                                                       unused

Checking for network time protocol daemon (NTPD):                                                                      unused

Checking for PC/SC smart card daemon                                                                                   unused

Checking for UPS monitoring service                                                                                    unused

Checking for random generator (always true)                                                                            running

                                                                                                                       dead

Checking for service rpasswd daemon:                                                                                   unused

Checking for service rpcbind                                                                                           running

                                                                                                                       unknown

Checking for service sendmail:                                                                                         running

/dev/ttyS0 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A

/dev/ttyS1 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A                                                                             running

/usr/sbin/FOO not installed

                                                                                                                       unknown

Checking for service sshd                                                                                              running

Checking for stunnel (SSL tunnel):                                                                                     unused

Checking for service syslog:                                                                                           running

Checking for syslog-collector service:                                                                                 running

Checking for syslog-collector SSL service:                                                                             running

Checking for service uuidd                                                                                             unused

Checking vami-lighttpd status: 2455 ?        00:11:02 vami-lighttpd

Checking vami-sfcbd status: 2464 ?        00:00:00 vami-sfcbd

2466 ?        00:00:00 vami-sfcbd

2471 ?        00:00:00 vami-sfcbd

2472 ?        00:00:00 vami-sfcbd

2474 ?        00:00:00 vami-sfcbd

2475 ?        00:00:00 vami-sfcbd

2479 ?        00:00:00 vami-sfcbd

26588 ?        00:00:00 vami-sfcbd

running (standalone: 3148)

Warning: vmci status: unimplemented

running (standalone: 3188)

running (standalone: 3232)

VMware Inventory Service is running (PID:4965, Wrapper:STARTED, Java:STARTED)

VMware Log Browser is running

/usr/sbin/vmware-netdumper is running

Checking for /usr/bin/rbd-watchdog-linux:                                                                              unused

VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage Service is running (PID:5793, Wrapper:STARTED, Java:STARTED)

Checking for VMware STS IDM Server ...                                                                                 running

Checking for service vmware-stsd                                                                                       running

vmtoolsd is running

could not change directory to "/root"

pg_ctl: server is running (PID: 3917)

/opt/vmware/vpostgres/9.0/bin/postgres "-D" "/storage/db/vpostgres"

vmware-vpxd is running

tomcat is running

Warning: vsock status: unimplemented

VMware vSphere Web Client is running: PID:6155, Wrapper:STARTED, Java:STARTED

Checking for service xinetd:                                                                                           unused

Checking for ypbind:                                                                                                   unused

[SureshKumarMuth]

Can you use this article to check SSO related services status manually, or go for a appliance reboot if you have not tired and check if that brings the services to respond again.

VMware Knowledge Base

[BobAgi]

Back from lunch...

I logged in and checked the services I thought related:

vcenter:~ # service vsphere-client status

VMware vSphere Web Client is running: PID:6155, Wrapper:STARTED, Java:STARTED

vcenter:~ # service vmdird status

running (standalone: 3188)

vcenter:~ # service vmcad status

running (standalone: 3148)

vcenter:~ # service vmware-stsd status

Checking for service vmware-stsd

running

vcenter:~ # service vmware-sts-idmd status

Checking for VMware STS IDM Server ...

running

How can I check which service is handling the 7444 port?

Edit:

vcenter:~ # netstat -lptu | grep 7444

tcp        0      0 *:7444                  *:*                     LISTEN      3842/java

This is what is listed as unavailable on the logon screen..

[Akin Akalan]

Those are the list for services vcsa 5.5. Could you please check all and tell us which are not working?

also could you please try to login and when it failed grab logs from /var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxd.log

vCenter Server Appliance 5.x Service Description and Service Name correlation list

Service Description	Service Name
VMware VirtualCenter Server Service	vmware-vpxd
Embedded vPostgres Database service	vmware-vpostgres
VMware Tools Service	vmware-tools-services
VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage Service	vmware-sps
VMware vCenter Inventory Service	vmware-inventoryservice
VMware vSphere Network Dump Collector service	vmware-netdumper
VMware vSphere Log Browser	vmware-logbrowser
VMware vSphere Auto Deploy service	vmware-rbd-watchdog
VMware vSphere Web Client	vsphere-client
[For vSphere 5.1 Only] vCenter Single Sign-On 5.1	vmware-sso
[For vSphere 5.5 Only] vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 - VMware Directory Service	vmdird
[For vSphere 5.5 Only] vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 - VMware Certificate Service	vmcad
[For vSphere 5.5 Only] vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 - VMware Secure Token Service	vmware-stsd
[For vSphere 5.5 Only] vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 - VMware Kdc Service	vmkdcd
[For vSphere 5.5 Only] vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 - VMware Identity Management Service	vmware-sts-idmd

[SureshKumarMuth]

As the services are running fine...I think this could be an issue between web client and sso. Can you try to login to vcenter via vSphere thick client and check if it is allowing to login? If that works, then you have to reregister web client with sso again manually...

[BobAgi]

Very strange, yesterday I composed a reply after the system had started working as shown below, but for some reason it appears to have been lost.

When I went to reply to your last messages today the apparently unsent message below appeared!

Don't know why, but the system is noa fully accessible on all entrypoints I have tested:

• Web Client
• VMware vSphere Client Windows application
• Direct root login via ssh on port 22
• Web access on port 5480
• And I do not see the warning about the single sign-on anymore.

Seems like the system has healed itself...

Thanks!

For completeness, here is what I intended to send yesterday:

------ Should have been sent yesterday but apparently did not leave my browser -----------------------

I got an email response that is not visible here but asked what I see when I access the :9443 port of the server.

So I did and now I saw this:

And while composing this message the regular login screen appeared and now it is working again!

So by some magic the issue seems to have resolved itself.

[RajeevVCP4]

This issue resolved in 5.5 3f.

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2122788