Missing Content Libraries.

I came to deploy a Virtual Machine from a Content Library on vSphere 6.5 and discovered that the Content Library had disappeared.

Cause

The Content Library Service was stopped.

Attempting to start the service caused an error- both through the GUI and command line.

 1VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.0.10000
 2Type: vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller
 3root@VC3's password:
 4Last login: Thu Sep 7 12:55:51 2017 from
 5
 6root@vc3 [ ~ ]# service-control --status vmware-content-library
 7Stopped:
 8vmware-content-library
 9root@vc3 [ ~ ]# service-control --start vmware-content-library
10Perform start operation. vmon_profile=None, svc_names=['vmware-content-library'], include_coreossvcs=False, include_leafossvcs=False
112017-09-07T13:27:38.208Z Service content-library state STOPPED
12Error executing start on service content-library. Details {
13"resolution": null,
14"detail": [
15{
16"args": [
17"content-library"
18],
19"id": "install.ciscommon.service.failstart",
20"localized": "An error occurred while starting service 'content-library'",
21"translatable": "An error occurred while starting service '%(0)s'"
22}
23],
24"componentKey": null,
25"problemId": null
26}
27Service-control failed. Error {
28"resolution": null,
29"detail": [
30{
31"args": [
32"content-library"
33],
34"id": "install.ciscommon.service.failstart",
35"localized": "An error occurred while starting service 'content-library'",
36"translatable": "An error occurred while starting service '%(0)s'"
37}
38],
39"componentKey": null,
40"problemId": null
41}
42root@vc3 [ ~ ]#

The symptoms possibly started following an upgrade of vCenter to 6.5 Update 1.

Solution

Removing the ts-config.properties files (see VMware KB2151085 here) allowed me to restart the service.

 1root@vc3 [ ~ ]# cd /etc/vmware-content-library/config
 2root@vc3 [ /etc/vmware-content-library/config ]# ls
 3cls-config.properties ts-config.properties ts-config.properties.rpmnew vdcs-config.properties
 4root@vc3 [ /etc/vmware-content-library/config ]# cp ts-config.properties ts-config.properties.orig
 5root@vc3 [ /etc/vmware-content-library/config ]# cp ts-config.properties.rpmnew ts-config.properties.rpmnew.orig
 6root@vc3 [ /etc/vmware-content-library/config ]# mv ts-config.properties.rpmnew ts-config.properties
 7
 8root@vc3 [ /etc/vmware-content-library/config ]# service-control --stop vmware-content-library;service-control --start vmware-content-library
 9Perform stop operation. vmon_profile=None, svc_names=['vmware-content-library'], include_coreossvcs=False, include_leafossvcs=False
10Successfully stopped service content-library
11Perform start operation. vmon_profile=None, svc_names=['vmware-content-library'], include_coreossvcs=False, include_leafossvcs=False
122017-09-07T13:29:15.212Z Service content-library state STOPPED
13Successfully started service content-library
14root@vc3 [ /etc/vmware-content-library/config ]#

 

The Content Library however was still not visible until after a reboot of the vCenter Server Appliance.