vCenter services stop, start, or status command in windows

If your vCenter is on a Windows host, then you must use Windows commands to restart the VMware vSphere web client service in vCenter. There are many ways to restart services in vcenter and troubleshooting purposes, it is required to restart the VMware vCenter Server services such as VMware Virtual Center Server, VMware vSphere Web Client, or VMware Directory Service.

VMware vCenter Server 6.x, VMware recommends to use the vSphere Web Client or Service Control command-line tool to stop, start, or restart vCenter Server. These commands are verified with VMware vCenter Server 6.x and steps to restarting the vSphere web client service in Windows.

How to stop, start and status vCenter services command in Windows server.

1. Log in as an administrator to the windows server that is running vCenter Server.

2. Open an administrative command prompt.
Run this command to change to vCenter Server and/or Platform Services Controller installation directory:

3. Go to default vCenter server installation path

cd C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin

Run this command to list vCenter Server and/or Platform Services Controller services

./service-control --list
 

Run this command to view the current status of vCenter Server and/or Platform Services Controller services:

./service-control --status

Run this command to stop all services:

./service-control --stop --all

Run this command to start all services:

./service-control --start --all

To perform a dry run of the command, This displays the actions that command run without executing the actions.

./service-control --start --all --dry-run

Run this command to stop a specific service:

service-control --stop servicename

Run this command to start a specific service:

service-control --start servicename

 

Example

service commands

vCenter service control commands

 

Errors:

A server error occurred.
[500] SSO error: Cannot connect to the VMware Component Manager https://vcentera.vmusketeers.local/cm/sdk?hostid=8f7ab780-bbd2-11e7-8d6f-2cc260268d52
Check the vSphere Web Client server logs for details.

 

vCenter Errors

To solve this you have to restart the Component Manager and the Web client from the command line, both which are unavailable from the services.msc.

Go to the installation path of your vCenter server:

cd C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin

stop and start Component Manager services

service-control --stop VMwareComponentManager
service-control --start VMwareComponentManager

stop and start the web client service:

service-control --stop vspherewebclientsvc
service-control --start vspherewebclientsvc