Defining a Service Dependency for vCentre

When the vCentre Windows service starts, it tries to connect to its database. If the database is ready, then that's fine. If the database isn't properly started, then vCentre fails. Unfortunately,this is the usual case when you install the SQL database and vCentre on the same operating system. You reboot vCentre and it fails to start up automatically; you have to go and start the 'Virtual Center' service yourself. That's just rubbish.

So what we need to do is make the 'Virtual Center' service depend on the SQL server having started successfully. This is done by editing the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vpxd registry settings.

We're particularly interested in the 'DependsOnService' property, where we need to add the following services:

• MSSQLSERVER
• SQLSERVERAGENT

Now reboot your vCentre and - while it takes a bit longer to come up - it will all start perfectly every time.