Knowledge Base

To perform a clean reinstall of vCenter Server:

1. Backup the vCenter database. You need to reattach to this database during the reinstall.
   
2. Backup your SSL key files for later use:
   
   
   • Server 2003: C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Virtual Center\SSL
   • Server 2008: C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Virtual Center\SSL
     
     
3. Stop all vCenter Services. For more information, see Stopping, starting, or restarting vCenter services (1003895).
   
4. Uninstall vCenter Server. For more information, see Best practices for uninstalling vCenter Server (1030559).
   
5. Remove or rename these folders if they still exist:
   
   
   • C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter
   • C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter
     
     
6. Remove this registry key, if it still exists, backing it up if you want:
   
   HKLM\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VirtualCenter
   
   
7. Reinstall vCenter Server and choose your existing DB file during the install process. For more information, see Installing ESX 4.1 and vCenter Server 4.1 best practices (1022101).
   
8. If you need to reuse your SSL certificates backed up in step 2, see Replacing vCenter Server Certificates.