How to fix ESX Agent Manager Service fails to start after VMware vCenter Server Appliance reboot?

ESX Agent Manager (EAM) Service fails to start after VMware vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) reboot or recovering from 100% storage utilization issue.

EAM MOB web interface unable to access as well. Before EAM starts, eam.properties file is getting updated using cis.utils.replace_properties_in_file. This rewrites the eam.properties file which causes a loss of the data inside the file or eam.properties getting removed during start of the EAM service in an environment without any disk space.

Follow below steps to recover EAM service on VCSA 6.0 by manually replacing eam.properties file.

ESX Agent Manager Service fails to start after VMware vCenter Server Appliance reboot

Solution

1. Connect to vCenter appliance using SSH or console, enter a bash shell.
2. Browse to /etc/vmware-eam/
3. Clone eam.properties file to have a backup from the original file using below command:

   cp eam.properties eam.properties.old

4. Determine the host ID using command below:

   cat /etc/vmware/install-defaults/sca.hostid:

5. Check the vCenter FQDN: host -f
6. Execute below command to change the file permission:

   chmod 777 eam.properties

7. Execute script Recreate_eam.propertiers.sh
8. Run below command to change the permission of ema.properties:

   chmod 0644 eam.properties

9. Start EAM service:

   Service vmware-eam start