VirtualCenter Server & Update Manager vpxd This is the process name of the Windows service that is the core service running on the VirtualCenter management server.
If there are problems with the VirtualCenter service starting and then stopping almost immediately or a few seconds later, then check your ODBC database string and then the health of the the database server. We have seen this when the database runs out of disk space; check if the log space is full on the DB server, many clients forget about regular backup of this database. When troubleshooting the VirtualCenter service you can try VirtualCenter in stand-alone mode. This is done by invoking the following command at the Windows command line
vpxd -s You will get interactive logging of the start-up activity helping you to pinpoint where the problem is.
If all else fails, you can always re-initialize the VirtualCenter database, however we would not recommend this. By re-initializing the VirtualCenter database you are wiping out all VC data!! If you do want this, then use the
-b command switch to vpxd.
This is the VirtualCenter management server configuration file. (Ok, so we are extending this command line guide to cover the VirtualCenter server now as well as the ESX host!)
There are a number of configuration changes to VirtualCenter we can make in this file, but as of VC 2.5, one such change you may wish to make is the disabling of "Guided Consolidation". This feature, shown just as a consolidation button in the VI client, is intended to help small customers select which physical Windows hosts are suitable for consolidation and then guide them to perform the physical to virtual migration.
If you have already been through the consolidation process, then you don't need this feature. It makes sense to disable the feature if you are not using it as this should improve VC performance. To disable Guided Consolidation, simply edit the vpxd.cfg file on the VC management server and make the following change:
config.vcp2v.dontStartConsolidation = true
vum-proxyAuthCfg.exe The Update Manager component of Virtual Infrastructure is new to version 2.5. This component allows the patch management of Windows & Linux guests as well as ESX hosts. When installing the Update Manager component, the Windows installer package prompts the operator if they wish to use a proxy server to connect to the Internet, the only options are proxy IP address and port. If your proxy server requires authentication, then this tool must be run to supply the proxy server credentials.
vci-integrity.xml This is the primary configuration file for the Update Manager.
One of the main reasons you may want to edit this file is if you wish to change the directory that patches are downloaded into, i.e. the patchstore.
vmware-umds.exe This is the VMware Update Manager Download Service. If you don't want the server where Update Manager is installed on to actually connect to the Internet and do the patch downloading, then UMDS is for you. Maybe you don't want the load of update downloads on the UM server or maybe the UM server is on a subnet that can't reach the Internet. Anyway, the UMDS installs on a Windows server (that is not the same server as UM) and doesn't create a start menu program group.
To start a download, simply enter the command
vmware-umds --download
Once the updates are downloaded, we can export them. This means we copy the patches from the download directory to another path. The intended purpose of exporting is to copy all or a subset of the downloaded patches to a location that will then be made available to the Update Manager server.
vmware-umds -E e:\exportedupdates
At this time UMDS does not support NFS/CIFS shares for the export operation. This is related to a permissions issue
vmware-updateDownloadCli.exe This tool is run on the Update Manager server to import the patches made available from the UMDS export. So if you had a DVD burned which had all the updates that was inserted to the UM server and available as drive Z:
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