Snow Inventory & Gateway service fails to start when port 5000 is in use by Nutanix Guest Services

Snow Inventory and the Snow Inventory Gateway service may fail to start on a Windows server where Nutanix Guest Tools are installed. Both services can use TCP port 5000. Although this configuration can work, differences in Windows HTTP.sys configuration between servers can prevent the Snow Inventory Gateway service from binding correctly.

Why port 5000 is being utilized:

Kestrel is embedded into the Snow service
Port 5000 is defined inside the application start-up configuration
The port is not configurable at runtime or via Windows service settings

Because of this:

Snow Inventory Gateway is effectively hard‑coded to port 5000
There is no supported Snow configuration to change the port

Solution

Configure HTTP.sys IP Listen List

Prerequisites

Administrator access on the Windows server
Identify the server’s primary network IP address

Steps

Open Command Prompt as Administrator.
Check current listeners on port 5000:
netstat -ano | findstr :5000

You may see:
- 127.0.0.1:5000 owned by pythonservice.exe (Nutanix Guest Tools)
- Missing or failing binding for the server IP
Add the server IP to the HTTP.sys IP listen list:
netsh http add iplisten ipaddress=<SERVER_IP>

Restart the Windows HTTP service to apply the change:

net stop http
net start http
Restart the Snow Inventory Gateway service.

Validation

Confirm the IP listen list:
netsh http show iplisten
Confirm both listeners can coexist:
netstat -ano | findstr :5000

Expected:
- ServerIP:5000 bound by PID 4 (System / HTTP.sys)
- 127.0.0.1:5000 bound by pythonservice.exe

Outcome

You should now successfully be able to start the snow inventory service.

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Product

Snow Inventory Server

Solution Area

Configuration

Version

26.x;25.x;9.x

Visibility

Guest

URL Name

Snow-Inventory-Gateway-fails-to-start-when-port-5000-is-in-use-by-Nutanix-Guest-Services