vCenter services not starting and failing with below errors:
ERROR service-control Service-control failed. Error Failed to start vmon services.vmon-cli RC=2, stderr=Failed to start cm services. Error: Service crashed while starting
When you verify logs:
vmon.log:
========================== 2019-07-01T91:07:88.667+05:30| vthread-5| E110: Invalid Json formatted file C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\data\vmware-vmon.svcStats\stats_vpxd-svcs.json 2019-07-01T91:07:88.667+05:30| vthread-5| E110: Parse Error: Text only contains white space(s). Offset: 0 2019-07-01T91:07:88.667+05:30| vthread-5| W115: Failed to add service vpxd-svcs.json. 2019-07-01T91:07:88.667+05:30| vthread-5| E110: Invalid Json formatted file C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\data\vmware-vmon.svcStats\stats_vpxd.json 2019-07-01T91:07:88.667+05:30| vthread-5| E110: Parse Error: Text only contains white space(s). Offset: 0 2019-07-01T91:07:88.667+05:30| vthread-5| W115: Failed to add service vpxd.json. 2019-07-01T91:07:88.667+05:30| vthread-5| E110: Invalid Json formatted file C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\data\vmware-vmon.svcStats\stats_vsan-health.json 2019-07-01T91:07:88.667+05:30| vthread-5| E110: Parse Error: Text only contains white space(s). Offset: 0 2019-07-01T91:07:88.667+05:30| vthread-5| W115: Failed to add service vsan-health.json. 2019-07-01T91:07:88.667+05:30| vthread-5| E110: Invalid Json formatted file C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\data\vmware-vmon.svcStats\stats_vsm.json ==========================
This issue occurs when json files (data files) are corrupted which are required to start the service.
To fix this issue :
-- Take backup/snapshot of your vCenter VM and vCenter database -- Stop all vCenter services -- Copy and replace files from the working vCenter(same version and build number) location C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\data\vmware-vmon.svcStats to non working vCenter. -- Start vCenter services and all your services should get started