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Quick Tip - Start & Stop order for vCenter Server Services

by // 9 Comments

A couple weeks back I had worked on something that required me to shutdown all the vCenter Server Services on a VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance). There is no high level service that can be stopped which would properly shutdown all the different services in the appropriate order. Luckily, one can easily derive the start and stop order by just taking a look at the runlevel scripts (S* for start and K* for Kill scripts). I have extracted the order in which the vCenter Server Services must be stopped and started which is shown below:

Stop Order:

  1. vmcad
  2. vmdird
  3. vmkdcd
  4. vmware-inventoryservice
  5. vmware-logbrowser
  6. vmware-netdumper
  7. vmware-vpxd
  8. vsphere-client
  9. vmware-stsd
  10. vmware-sts-idmd

Start Order:

  1. vmcad
  2. vmdird
  3. vmkdcd
  4. vmware-netdumper
  5. vmware-sts-idmd
  6. vmware-stsd
  7. vmware-inventoryservice
  8. vmware-logbrowser
  9. vmware-vpxd
  10. vsphere-client

Note: Although I mention the VCSA, the ordering also applies to a vCenter Server for Windows which has the exact same services.

Here is a simple shell script snippet that can be used to stop all vCenter Server Services in the appropriate order:

VMWARE_SERVICE_STOP=(
vmcad
vmdird
vmkdcd
vmware-inventoryservice
vmware-logbrowser
vmware-netdumper
vmware-vpxd
vsphere-client
vmware-stsd
vmware-sts-idmd
)

for i in ${VMWARE_SERVICE_STOP[@]};
do
  /etc/init.d/$i stop
done

}

Here is a simple shell script snippet that can be used to start all vCenter Server Services in the appropriate order:

VMWARE_SERVICE_START=(
vmcad
vmdird
vmkdcd
vmware-netdumper
vmware-sts-idmd
vmware-stsd
vmware-inventoryservice
vmware-logbrowser
vmware-vpxd
vsphere-client
)

for i in ${VMWARE_SERVICE_START[@]};
do
  /etc/init.d/$i start
done

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Comments

  1. thats cool, did you write that script for the appliance specifically? can it be used on other appliances?

    Reply

    • The snippet is specifically for VCSA, however you could use the base to start/stop other services for other VMware Appliances or even just Linux systems in general as it's just the service name

      Reply

  2. Here is the same thing in a one-liner (no need to create a script):

    Stopping services in the correct order:

    $ ls /etc/init.d/ | grep 'vmcad\|vmdird\|vmkdcd\|vmware-inventoryservice\|vmware-logbrowser\|vmware-netdumper\|vmware-vpxd\|vsphere-client\|vmware-stsd\|vmware-sts-idmd' | while read line ; do service "$line" stop ; done

    Starting services in the correct order:

    $ ls /etc/init.d/ | grep 'vmcad\|vmdird\|vmkdcd\|vmware-inventoryservice\|vmware-logbrowser\|vmware-netdumper\|vmware-vpxd\|vsphere-client\|vmware-stsd\|vmware-sts-idmd' | while read line ; do service "$line" start ; done

    Reply

  3. Correction - starting services in the correct order is as follows:

    ls /etc/init.d/ | grep 'vmcad\|vmdird\|vmkdcd\|vmware-netdumper\|vmware-sts-idmd\|vmware-stsd\|vmware-inventoryservice\vmware-logbrowser\|vmware-vpxd\|vsphere-client' while read line ; do service "$line" start ; done

    Reply

  5. how to find start order of vcsa 6.5 services and its dependencies.. Please tell how to verify the same by analysing scripts..

    trying to figure out start of on services on external psc and embedded psc vcsa machine's

    Reply

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