I ran into this issue at a customer site that even though I had set the vCenter service to be dependent upon the database service before starting, it still would not start because the SQL database wasn't ready to accept inboud connections via ODBC.

It was necessary to introduce a delay before the vCenter service tried to start.

I wish I could take credit for figuring this out but I will give credit where credit is due. I had to modify the script slightly but the essence is the same.

From:   <a href="http://www.notes2self.info/2009/06/vmware-virtualcenter-service-not.html">http://www.notes2self.info/2009/06/vmware-virtualcenter-service-not.html</a>

Friday, 26 June 2009
VMware VirtualCenter service not starting on reboot

It seems that once VC fails with event ID 1000 it won't try to restart. So restart delay is ignored.

Add a SQL server dependency to the vpxd service.

In the registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServices/vpxd

I modified the existing value of DependOnService which was "ProtectedStorage lanmanworkstation"

to become: "ProtectedStorage lanmanworkstation MSSQL$SQLEXP_VIM"

(where MSSQL@SQLEXP_VIM is the instance of my VirtualCenter SQL Server service)

if this still doesn't work then:

1. Create a .bat file with following script:

net start MSSQL$SQLEXP_VIM
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 30 -w 1000 &gt; null
net start vpxd

<strong><em>netstart vctomcat  &lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;  I added this part to the script.  This starts the web based managment services. (RB)</em></strong>

2. Set script to run on boot. For 2003 systems:
* Open the local computer policy (Start &gt; Run and type in gpedit.msc and press Enter)
* Expand Computer ConfigurationWindows SettingsScripts
* In the right-hand pane, double-click Startup and add your script.
3. Set SQL and VC services to manual startup.

And reboot the server.