vSphere 6.5 – PSC or vCSA Node not listed

This post is applicable to customers using VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.

Problem:

1. Login to vSphere Web Client.
2. Browse to Home, System Configuration and select Nodes on the top left-hand corner of the UI.
3. One of your PSC appliances or vCSA instances does not appear in the node list. You may see this after you have upgraded your vCSA infrastructure from 6.0 to 6.5.
4. Or, the instance is listed with the message “The appliance management service on <object> is not running.”

Solution:

1. SSH to the PSC appliance or vCenter Server Appliance in question and login with the root credentials. Make sure SSH has been enabled from the VAMI on Port 5480.
   
2. Execute the command “service-control –list” for the vCSA service list. You will see “applmgmt” is present.
3. Execute the command “service-control –stop applmgmt” to stop the service.
4. Execute the command “service-control –start applmgmt” to start the service.
5. In the vSphere Web Client, browse to Home, System Configuration and check that the issue with the Node has cleared.
6. Note: an external PSC has 9 services (all active), a dedicated vCSA has 25 services (normally 19 active, 6 disabled) and a combination PSC/vCSA has 27 services (normally 21 active, 6 disabled). The disabled services vary depending upon which advanced services have been enabled (eg. Auto-Deploy, vCenter HA, etc.).

Background:

In vCenter Server for Windows, an administrator will use the Services MMC to manipulate vCenter Server services, however with vCSA, they are administered via CLI. vCSA service manipulation is also documented in VMware KB 2109887.