VMWare Blog: Unable to access VMware Virtual Infrastructure WebAccess if customized ports have been set

VIA: VMware Knowledge Base - View Document

Products: VMware VirtualCenter

Product Versions: VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x

Symptoms:

When you try to log in to VMware Virtual Infrastructure WebAccess when a custom HTTP port has been specified (whether during installation, before an upgrade, or after), the error Web service is unavailable is shown.
When you try to log in to VMware Virtual Infrastructure WebAccess when a custom Tomcat Webservice port has been specified (whether during installation, before an upgrade, or after), the error 503 Service Unavailable is shown.
Changing the VMware Virtual Infrastructure ports worked prior to installation of (or upgrade to) VirtualCenter 2.5.

By default VMware Virtual Infrastructure WebAccess uses several different ports when you connect. If a modification is made to the default ports that are used for VMware Virtual Infrastructure WebAccess, the configuration is not properly saved and one (or both) of the errors above may be noticed when you try to connect.

To correct this behavior if a custom HTTP port has been specified:

Log in to the VirtualCenter Server as an administrator.
Click Start > Run.
Type services.msc.
Press Enter.
Stop the VMware VirtualCenter Server service.
Stop the VMware Virtual Infrastructure WebAccess service.
Navigate to C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\tomcat\webapps\ui\WEB-INF\classes\
Make a copy of the proxy.properties file, and the login.properties file as a backup.
Open the proxy.properties file with a utility such as notepad.
Change the proxy.service.url = http://localhost:80/sdk parameter to proxy.service.url = http://localhost:<custom port>/sdk where <custom port> is the value of the port specified for VMware Virtual Infrastructure WebAccess. This port must be the same as the HTTP port specified in Administration > VirtualCenter Management Server Configuration > Web Service.
Save and close the file.
Open the login.properties file with a utility such as notepad.

Note: There is also a file called .login.properties, be sure to open the correct file.
Change the login.webServiceUrl.defaultValue = http://localhost/sdk parameter to login.webServiceUrl.defaultValue = http://localhost:<custom port>/sdk where <custom port> is the value of the port specified for VMware VirtualCenter WebAccess. This port needs to be the same as the HTTP port specified in Administration > VirtualCenter Management Server Configuration > Web Service.
Save and Close the file.
Navigate back to the services control panel and start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service
Start the VMware Virtual Infrastructure WebAccess service.

To correct this behavior if a custom Tomcat Webservice port has been specified:

Log in to the VirtualCenter Server as an administrator.
Click Start > Run.
Type services.msc.
Press Enter.
Stop the VMware VirtualCenter Server service.
Stop the VMware Virtual Infrastructure WebAccess service.
Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\
Make a copy of the proxy.xml file as a backup.
Open the proxy.xml file with wordpad.
Locate the following xml code, and change <custom port> to the correct port for the Tomcat Webservice:

<e id="2">
<_type>vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec</_type>
<serverNamespace>/ui</serverNamespace>
<accessMode>httpsWithRedirect</accessMode>
<port><custom port></port>
</e>
Save and Close the file.
Navigate back to the services control panel and start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service
Start the VMware Virtual Infrastructure WebAccess service.