Unable to start vCenter appliance services, status shows ‘invalid’ |

vCenter can’t be access due to invalid service. The service status shows as ‘invalid’.

root@L2vCenter [ ~ ]# service-control --status --all
2019-03-19T18:03:07.377Z  Error: Service name "updatemgr" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:07.433Z  Error: Service name "vsan-health" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:07.542Z  Error: Service name "netdumper" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:07.599Z  Error: Service name "rbd" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:07.656Z  Error: Service name "vmcam" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:07.716Z  Error: Service name "vpxd" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:07.835Z  Error: Service name "sps" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:07.896Z  Error: Service name "vsphere-ui" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:07.955Z  Error: Service name "pschealth" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.074Z  Error: Service name "mbcs" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.133Z  Error: Service name "cis-license" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.190Z  Error: Service name "vsphere-client" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.248Z  Error: Service name "analytics" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.306Z  Error: Service name "vsm" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.362Z  Error: Service name "eam" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.419Z  Error: Service name "sca" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.477Z  Error: Service name "vmware-postgres-archiver" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.534Z  Error: Service name "applmgmt" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.592Z  Error: Service name "imagebuilder" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.813Z  Error: Service name "content-library" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.875Z  Error: Service name "vcha" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:08.936Z  Error: Service name "vmonapi" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:09.051Z  Error: Service name "vpxd-svcs" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:09.109Z  Error: Service name "vmware-vpostgres" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:09.166Z  Error: Service name "perfcharts" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:09.223Z  Error: Service name "statsmonitor" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:09.331Z  Error: Service name "cm" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:09.389Z  Error: Service name "rhttpproxy" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:09.446Z  Error: Service name "vsan-dps" is invalid.
2019-03-19T18:03:09.503Z  Error: Service name "vapi-endpoint" is invalid.
Running:
 lwsmd vmafdd vmcad vmdird vmdnsd vmware-pod vmware-sts-idmd vmware-stsd vmware-vmon

If we manually start service then following error is seen.

root@L2vCenter []# service-control --start cm
Operation not cancellable. Please wait for it to finish...
Performing start operation on service cm...
2019-03-19T18:25:03.849Z  Error: Invalid input provided to get startType ofservice cm.
Error executing start on service cm. Details Error: startType of svc: cm rc : 6 stdout:  stderr: Service Get State request failed. Error: Invalid input data
Service-control failed. Error: Error: startType of svc: cm rc : 6 stdout:  stderr: Service Get State request failed. Error: Invalid input data

The issue comes because of storage OR time synch issues caused on vCenter VM. Use below steps to fix the issue.

1. Take snapshot of vCenter VM.

2. Go to ‘/storage/vmware-vmon/.svcStats’ delete OR move all Jason files.

root@vcsa1 [ ~ ]# mkdir /tmp/json-bkp
root@vcsa1 [ ~ ]# mv /storage/vmware-vmon/.svcStats/*.json /tmp/json-bkp

3. Stop & start vCenter services.

root@vcsa1 [ ~ ]# service-control --stop --all
root@vcsa1 [ ~ ]# service-control --start --all