VCentre Server Connection Problem

[Admaine]

Hi there,

We discovered a problem whereby we were unable to connect to our VCentre Server which reported the error ‘incorrect username or password’. 

We know 100% the username (vsphere.local\administrator) and password are correct.  We haven’t made any changes since we first established our VMware environment 3 years ago.

The version of the vcenter server appliance is 6.0.0

Yesterday we tried ‘resetting’ the vcenter server from one of our virtual hosts.  We watched the server reboot and did notice an error that the embedded database had failed to start along with a few other errors which may have referenced some services not starting (although it was hard to keep up with the fast scrolling screen).  When we try to logon using the client we get the error below connecting from the client software:

Using the web client, we get the error:

We can see the server logon screen when we connect from the host:

Our environment consists of:

vCenter Server	Hosts	Virtual Machines
vCentre Server v6.0.0	Host 1	4 Virtual Machines
	Host 2	4 Virtual Machines including the virtual server software (vSphere Client)

The virtual server software is running on the 2^nd host.

We cant remember the last time we connected to the server but suspect it was between 3-6 months ago.

I have also attempted to SSH (after enabling it from the host - it's worth noting that BASH commands wouldn't enable) on to the vSphere client which sits on our 2^nd host using Putty however I continue to get an error "Network Error: Software caused connection abort" which means I can't really check the services.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Ad

[vijayrana968]

You should check VCSA's FQDN is resolving successfully from the client you are accessing, and its services status. If you can't check services then a reboot should reproduce this issue.

See the very first symptom : "503 service unavailable" error when connecting to vSphere Web Client (2121043) | VMware KB

[Admaine]

Hi there,

Thank you for your response and excuse my naivety but how do you check the VCSA FQDN is resolving? Sorry I'm not an experienced VMWare user. We are unable to logon to this virtual machine at all hence why I was attempting to SSH on to it.

Should I attempt to reboot again? This was done yesterday evening which is when the 503 error prompted.

Kind regards,

Ad

[vijayrana968]

On the machine you are accessing vCenter, try following steps :

1. Ping vcenter.yourdomainname.com and Ping its IP Address as well.

2. Enable telnet on that client VM and run command 'telnet vcenter.yourdomainname.com 9443' and post the results here.

[Admaine]

Hi,

I can ping both server name and IP Address however when I telnet I just receive the message 'Invalid Command'?

I've tried a whole range of combinations, unsure what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks