I had an issue where a vCenter update to 6.0u2a failed and rolled back, after a restart we were unable to power on VMs there were in a powered off state.
On further inspection we found that the “VMware vCenter workflow manager” service wasn’t started and would not start.
In the Workflow-manager.log log located here C:\ProgramData\Vmware\vcenter\logs\workflow\ I could see error relating to the service not starting and “Error Creating bean with name ‘jmxconnectorstarter’”
Scroll a little further in the Workflow-manager.log and you should see the phrase “Caused by”
My error stated “Port value out of range: -1”
Browsing to the workflow.properties file located here C:\ProgramData\Vmware\vCenterServer\cfg\vmware-vpx-workflow\conf
In this file the workflow.jmx.port was set to -1, this was changed to 19999 by VMware support and hey presto, the service started!
Powering on all VMs was then possible within the VC.
Moral of this story… name your beans!
www.dojohnson.co.uk 
Thanks so much!! Been looking for the fix for months 🙂 You da man.
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Thank you! Just ran into this exact scenario. Your fix worked, and I’m back in business.
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What about if service is failing with vCSA 6.0
18-05-21T21:29:40.568Z RC = 1
Stdout = VMware vCenter workflow manager is not running.
workflow port = 8088
Waiting for vpxd to initialize
……..Mon May 21 21:28:39 UTC 2018 Captured live core: /var/core/live_core.vpxd.16217.05-21-2018-21-28-39
[INFO] writing vpxd process dump retry:2 Time(Y-M-D H:M:S):2018-05-21 21:28:37
.Mon May 21 21:29:10 UTC 2018 Captured live core: /var/core/live_core.vpxd.16217.05-21-2018-21-29-10
[INFO] writing vpxd process dump retry:1 Time(Y-M-D H:M:S):2018-05-21 21:29:09
.Timed out waiting for vpxd to initialize. Error code = 1
Stderr =
2018-05-21T21:29:40.569Z {
“resolution”: null,
“detail”: [
{
“args”: [
“Command: [‘/sbin/service’, u’vmware-vpx-workflow’, ‘start’]\nStderr: ”
],
“id”: “install.ciscommon.command.errinvoke”,
“localized”: “An error occurred while invoking external command : ‘Command: [‘/sbin/service’, u’vmware-vpx-workflow’, ‘start’]\nStderr: ‘”,
“translatable”: “An error occurred while invoking external command : ‘%(0)s'”
}
],
“componentKey”: null,
“problemId”: null
}
ERROR:root:Unable to start service vmware-vpx-workflow, Exception: {
“resolution”: null,
“detail”: [
{
“args”: [
“vmware-vpx-workflow”
],
“id”: “install.ciscommon.service.failstart”,
“localized”: “An error occurred while starting service ‘vmware-vpx-workflow'”,
“translatable”: “An error occurred while starting service ‘%(0)s'”
}
],
“componentKey”: null,
“problemId”: null
}
Unable to start service vmware-vpx-workflow, Exception: {
“resolution”: null,
“detail”: [
{
“args”: [
“vmware-vpx-workflow”
],
“id”: “install.ciscommon.service.failstart”,
“localized”: “An error occurred while starting service ‘vmware-vpx-workflow'”,
“translatable”: “An error occurred while starting service ‘%(0)s'”
}
],
“componentKey”: null,
“problemId”: null
}
rnovc6pr01:/etc/vmware-eam # service-control –start vmware-vpx-workflow
INFO:root:Service: vmware-vpx-workflow, Action: start
Service: vmware-vpx-workflow, Action: start
2018-05-21T21:34:43.191Z Running command: [‘/sbin/chkconfig’, u’vmware-vpx-workflow’]
2018-05-21T21:34:43.221Z Done running command
2018-05-21T21:34:43.221Z Running command: [‘/sbin/service’, u’vmware-vpx-workflow’, ‘status’]
2018-05-21T21:34:43.263Z Done running command
2018-05-21T21:34:43.263Z Running command: [‘/sbin/chkconfig’, ‘–force’, u’vmware-vpx-workflow’, ‘on’]
2018-05-21T21:34:43.292Z Done running command
2018-05-21T21:34:43.292Z Running command: [‘/sbin/service’, u’vmware-vpx-workflow’, ‘start’]
2018-05-21T21:39:46.583Z Done running command
2018-05-21T21:39:46.583Z Invoked command: [‘/sbin/service’, u’vmware-vpx-workflow’, ‘start’]
2018-05-21T21:39:46.583Z RC = 1
Stdout = VMware vCenter workflow manager is not running.
workflow port = 8088
Waiting for vpxd to initialize
……..Mon May 21 21:38:45 UTC 2018 Captured live core: /var/core/live_core.vpxd.16217.05-21-2018-21-38-45
[INFO] writing vpxd process dump retry:2 Time(Y-M-D H:M:S):2018-05-21 21:38:43
.Mon May 21 21:39:16 UTC 2018 Captured live core: /var/core/live_core.vpxd.16217.05-21-2018-21-39-16
[INFO] writing vpxd process dump retry:1 Time(Y-M-D H:M:S):2018-05-21 21:39:15
.Timed out waiting for vpxd to initialize. Error code = 1
Stderr =
2018-05-21T21:39:46.583Z {
“resolution”: null,
“detail”: [
{
“args”: [
“Command: [‘/sbin/service’, u’vmware-vpx-workflow’, ‘start’]\nStderr: ”
],
“id”: “install.ciscommon.command.errinvoke”,
“localized”: “An error occurred while invoking external command : ‘Command: [‘/sbin/service’, u’vmware-vpx-workflow’, ‘start’]\nStderr: ‘”,
“translatable”: “An error occurred while invoking external command : ‘%(0)s'”
}
],
“componentKey”: null,
“problemId”: null
}
ERROR:root:Unable to start service vmware-vpx-workflow, Exception: {
“resolution”: null,
“detail”: [
{
“args”: [
“vmware-vpx-workflow”
],
“id”: “install.ciscommon.service.failstart”,
“localized”: “An error occurred while starting service ‘vmware-vpx-workflow'”,
“translatable”: “An error occurred while starting service ‘%(0)s'”
}
],
“componentKey”: null,
“problemId”: null
}
Unable to start service vmware-vpx-workflow, Exception: {
“resolution”: null,
“detail”: [
{
“args”: [
“vmware-vpx-workflow”
],
“id”: “install.ciscommon.service.failstart”,
“localized”: “An error occurred while starting service ‘vmware-vpx-workflow'”,
“translatable”: “An error occurred while starting service ‘%(0)s'”
}
],
“componentKey”: null,
wrapper.logs
[PSYoungGen: 17568K->128K(17920K)] 51007K->33567K(54272K), 0.0031710 secs] [Times: user=0.01 sys=0.00, real=0.00 secs]
2018-05-21T17:44:52.056+0000: 3446422.895: [GC2018-05-21T17:44:52.059+0000: 3446422.897: [SoftReference, 0 refs, 0.0000190 secs]2018-05-21T17:44:52.059+0000: 3446422.897: [WeakReference, 0 refs, 0.0000050 secs]2018-05-21T17:44:52.059+0
000: 3446422.897: [FinalReference, 0 refs, 0.0000040 secs]2018-05-21T17:44:52.059+0000: 3446422.897: [PhantomReference, 0 refs, 0 refs, 0.0000040 secs]2018-05-21T17:44:52.059+0000: 3446422.897: [JNI Weak Reference, 0.0000050 secs]
Desired survivor size 524288 bytes, new threshold 15 (max 15)
[PSYoungGen: 17536K->160K(17920K)] 50975K->33607K(54272K), 0.0035230 secs] [Times: user=0.01 sys=0.00, real=0.01 secs]
2018-05-21T18:42:50.574+0000: 3449901.412: [GC2018-05-21T18:42:50.576+0000: 3449901.414: [SoftReference, 2 refs, 0.0000190 secs]2018-05-21T18:42:50.576+0000: 3449901.414: [WeakReference, 0 refs, 0.0000060 secs]2018-05-21T18:42:50.576+0
000: 3449901.414: [FinalReference, 0 refs, 0.0000040 secs]2018-05-21T18:42:50.576+0000: 3449901.414: [PhantomReference, 0 refs, 0 refs, 0.0000050 secs]2018-05-21T18:42:50.576+0000: 3449901.414: [JNI Weak Reference, 0.0000050 secs]
Desired survivor size 524288 bytes, new threshold 15 (max 15)
[PSYoungGen: 17568K->96K(17920K)] 51015K->33551K(54272K), 0.0029920 secs] [Times: user=0.00 sys=0.00, real=0.00 secs]
Heap
PSYoungGen total 17920K, used 11107K [0x00000000fce00000, 0x00000000fe080000, 0x0000000100000000)
eden space 17408K, 63% used [0x00000000fce00000,0x00000000fd8c0db8,0x00000000fdf00000)
from space 512K, 18% used [0x00000000fdf80000,0x00000000fdf98000,0x00000000fe000000)
to space 512K, 0% used [0x00000000fe000000,0x00000000fe000000,0x00000000fe080000)
ParOldGen total 36352K, used 33455K [0x00000000f6a00000, 0x00000000f8d80000, 0x00000000fce00000)
object space 36352K, 92% used [0x00000000f6a00000,0x00000000f8aabf90,0x00000000f8d80000)
PSPermGen total 54784K, used 44751K [0x00000000f2a00000, 0x00000000f5f80000, 0x00000000f6a00000)
object space 54784K, 81% used [0x00000000f2a00000,0x00000000f55b3fa0,0x00000000f5f80000)
vmware-vpx-workflow-gc.log.0.current lines 3141-3190/3190 (END)
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