KB ID 0000526 

Problem

I tried to logon to my vCenter this afternoon (Server 2008 R2) and could not get on, I connected to the server to find it was up but the “VMware VirtualCenter Server” service was not running. So I tried to start it and got the following error,

Error:
Windows could not start the VMware VirtualCenter Server on Local Computer. For more information, review the System Event Log. If this is a non-Microsoft service, contact the service vendor, and refer to service-specific error code 2

As suggested I went to the event viewer and opened the system log. All it yielded was a standard 7024 Service could not start error.

Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager
Date: 25/10/2011 14:48:21
Event ID: 7024
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: My-VCenter.MyDomain.com
Description:
The VMware VirtualCenter Server service terminated with service-specific error The system cannot find the file specified.
The VMware VirtualCenter Server service terminated with service-specific error 2 (0×2)

Solution

As it turned out,this problem was related to having IIS on the server (Virtual Center runs Apache web server).

1. Click Start > In the search/run box type > Services.msc {enter}

2. Locate the IIS Admin Service > Stop and Disable it.

3.Locate the “World Wide Publishing” Service and stop and disable that also (Note: You can fix this problem by disabling this service only but lets have a belt and braces approach).

4. Now you can start the “VMware Virtual Center Server” service.

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

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