It is a little known fact that the vpxd.exe executable has some powerful command line switches.

The vpxd.exe file is actually the VirtualCenter server daemon and the process that is launched when the VMware VirtualCenter service is started.

To access the command line switches, the process must NOT be running. This means stopping the VMware VirtualCenter service if it is running.

Once you have stopped the vpxd.exe process, open a command line and browse to the C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\ directory.

Then run the following command to display all of the relevant commands.

C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server>vpxd.exe -h

Usage: vpxd.exe [FLAGS]

Flags:

      -r       Register VMware VirtualCenter Server

      -u      Unregister VMware VirtualCenter Server

      -s      Run as a standalone server rather than a Service

      -c      Print vmdb schema to stdout

      -b      Recreate database repository

      -f cfg  Use the specified file instead of the default vpxd.cfg

      -l licenseKey     Store license key in ldap and assign it to VirtualCenter

      -p      Reset the database password

      -v      Print the version number to stdout 

Thanks to a friendly VMware SE for the idea of sharing this on the site.