Background
So recently I was updating my homelab with ESX 7.0 and a brand spanking new vCenter install. I choose to completely wipe my old homelab on the ESX environment and completely reinstall it.
I started with the ESX installation through this manual (https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2004784) and deployed a domain controller on the new VMware host.
So when the domain controller was up and running and all was well I started deploying the vCenter appliance using this manual (http://arnaudpain.com/2020/05/26/vmware-vcenter-7-0-install-step-by-step/#sthash.Zk3q8m3p.dpbs).
Problem
This worked and now I wanted to configure the vCenter. so browsed to the site.
After starting the HTML5 client I got this error:
Troubleshooting tips
Trying to figure out what was wrong I logged on the administration site and checked if all services where running you can do this with the following steps
1.log in https://VCFQDN:5480 check if the services VMware vCenter Server , an VMware vSphere Client are running
2. if VMware vSphere Client service can not start , check the var/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/logs/*runtime.log.stderr logfile
It could also be a problem with the SSL certificate expiring, then the STS service will probably fail. \sso check the certificates (which is always a good tip :-))!
Otherwise there could be a problem with free diskspace on the vCenter appliance, you can check that by connecting via SSH to the vCenter appliance and pasting this command: (after getting shell access)
hostname -f && date && uptime && vpxd -vl && chage -l root && df -h && service-control –status.
It should give enough room on all volumes e.g. like this screenshot. If one of the disks is full it will give 100% in use. then you need to enlarge the disk (or figure out why it’s full ;-))
Solution
After some searching online and checking with one of the vExperts (@laurensvanduijn thanks for the tip!) it was (as always) DNS. Before configuring the vCenter applicance you need a valid DNS record for the vCenter pointing to the correct IP adress (which i had).
And a valid PTR record in DNS for the vCenter appliance (which i didn’t have).
These things need to be in place BEFORE deploying the vCenter appliance, adding them afterwards didn’t solve my issue. So after creating the PTR record in DNS and redeploying the vCenter appliance. It started working as expected!
flowchart for future reference 🙂
Flowchart created by Mike S. (https://talesofatech.com/2017/03/rule-1-its-always-dns/)