vCenter Server Managed Object Browser (MOB) reports a 503 Service Unavailable error

If you cannot access the vCenter Server Managed Object Browser (MOB) at https://vCenterFQDN/mob/ and your browser shows this error:

503 Service Unavailable

but all other services are up and running, this mean it has been disabled.

The issue occurs if the <enableDebugBrowse> parameter in the vpxd.cfg config file is set to false

Here is a runlist to resolve this issue:

1. SSH to your vCenter
2. In vCenter Server, open the vpxd.cfg config file using a text editor.

NOTE: the location of vpxd.cfg should be: /etc/vmware-vpx/vpxd.cfg

3. Locate the <enableDebugBrowse> entry within the file

4. Either remove the entry or change the value from false to true

#vi /etc/vmware-vpx/vpxd.cfg

<vpxd>
...
...
<enableDebugBrowse>false</enableDebugBrowse>
...
...
</vpxd>

5. Restart the vCenter Server services for the changes to take effect

#service-control --stop vmware-vpxd
#service-control --start vmware-vpxd

NOTE! In version 6.X service may be called simply vpxd not vmware-vpxd. To check it list all services running in your environment by typing this command: service-control –-list

Here is a step-by-step video guide:

_{Please refer to vmware kb: vCenter Server Managed Object Browser (MOB) reports a 503 Service Unavailable error (2042554)}