How to Start, Stop, Restart vCenter Services | 2 Ways

What are the vCenter services

vCenter Server provides a centralized platform for management, operation, resource provisioning, and performance evaluation of virtual machines and hosts.

When you deploy the vCenter Server appliance, vCenter Server, the vCenter Server components, and the authentication services are deployed on the same system.

The following services are included in the vCenter Server appliance deployments:

• The authentication services contain vCenter Single Sign-On, License service, Lookup Service, and VMware Certificate Authority.
• The vCenter Server group of services contains vCenter Server, vSphere Client, vSphere Auto Deploy, and vSphere ESXi Dump Collector. The vCenter Server appliance also contains the VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager Extension service and the VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager.

When you want to troubleshoot or maintain the vCenter server, you may need to stop or restart vCenter services. This article covers 2 ways to start/stop/restart vCenter services using vSphere Client and command-line.

How to restart vCenter services with 2 ways

In 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 and/or Platform Services Controller services.

Way 1. Restart vCenter using vSphere Web Client

To stop, start, or restart vCenter services using vSphere Web Client:

1. Log in to the vSphere Web Client with a vCenter Single Sign-on administrator account.

2. Navigate to Administration >> Deployment >> System Configuration.

3. Click on Services, and you could see the list of all vCenter services.

4. To view a list of services for a specific node, click Nodes, select the node in question and click the Related Objects tab.

5. Right-click on the service you would like to restart and select Restart (Start/Stop).

Way 2. Restart vCenter services from command-line

To restart vCenter services using command line, please follow the steps:

1. Log in as an administrator through an SSH or console session on the vCenter Server Appliance.

Note: Detailed information about enabling SSH for VMware vCenter.

2. Run this command to enable the shell:

Note: This command is only applicable for in vCenter Server Appliance 6.0.

Then launch the shell:

3. Run this command to change directories to /bin:

4. Run this command to list the vCenter Server services:

5. Run this command to restart vCenter services:

☞ Start a specific service:

☞ Start all vCenter service from command line:

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

☞ Stop a specific service:

☞ Stop all services:

With these two methods, you can start, stop, or restart vCenter services at any time especially when you need to perform troubleshooting or maintenance.

If your enterprise environment relies on vCenter Servers, you need to prepare a complete vCenter backup, and choose a reliable VMware backup method.

Secure and effortless VM protection for VMware ESXi

If you're managing a VMware vCenter environment, keeping your data secure is paramount. Restarting vCenter services is a crucial step in maintaining the health of your system, but for comprehensive protection, using a robust backup solution like AOMEI Cyber Backup can take your data security to the next level.

AOMEI Cyber Backup work seamlessly within your vCenter environment. It allows you to directly bind virtual machines (VMs) in your vCenter inventory, simplifying large-scale backup operations. As a powerful and centralized VMware backup software, AOMEI Cyber Backup also offers you the following benefits:

✦ Agentless Backup: Create complete and independent image-level backup for VMware ESXi and Hyper-V VMs.
✦ Multiple VM Backup: Batch backup large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server, or multiple VMs on a standalone ESXi host.
✦ Multiple Storage Destinations: Store data to local, network or cloud storage. This flexibility helps manage costs effectively.
✦ Automated Execution: Schedule backups to run automatically as daily, weekly, or monthly.
✦ Restore Entire VM: Quickly restore VMware VMs from backups, minimizing downtime and ensuring continuity of operations.

AOMEI Cyber Backup supports VMware ESXi 6.0 and later versions. You can click the following button to download the 30-day free trial.

4 Steps to batch backup VMs on vCenter Server from data loss

1. Bind Devices: Access to AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, navigate to Source Device > VMware > + Add VMware Device to Add vCenter or Standalone ESXi host. And then click … > Bind Device.

2. Create Backup Task: Navigate to Backup Task > + Create New Task, and select VMware ESXi Backup as the Backup Type.

3. Set Task Name, Device, Target, Schedule, and Cleanup as needed.

• Task Name: Enter a distinctive name or leave it as default.
• Device: Batch select multiple VMs managed by vCenter Server for centralized backup.
• Target: select to back up to a local path, or to a network path.
• Archive: Easily archive VMware ESXi VM backup to S3, including low-cost S3 Glacier and S3 Glacier Deep Archive, ideal for long-term backup.
• Schedule (optional): perform full, differential, or incremental backup, and automate execution according to the frequency you specified.
• Cleanup (optional): automatically delete the old backup copies that exceed the retention period you specified.

4. Run Backup: Click Start Backup and select Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.

Created backup tasks will be listed and monitored separately, for progress checking, schedule changing and restoring. It’s easy to make a clone of a virtual machine in the same or another datastore/host, without reinstalling or configuring a new VM by clicking Restore to new location.

Summary

For large-scale virtual environment of enterprise, it even requires multiple vCenter Servers to work simultaneously.

This article covers 2 ways to restart vCenter services. You are able to restart all vCenter services in vSphere Web Client and if you are familiar with command line, it’s also easy to start/stop/restart vCenter services.