How to start Central Administration from command line - very urgent!!!!

central admin is not a service

from the command line:
iisreset /noforce
this will briefly take down sharepoint (a few seconds)

also check IIS and make sure none of the sites are stopped.

thanks, but that didn't do it, all websites are started, any other idea?

When I try to manually via gui stop the Sharepoint website in IIS I get "The System Cannot Find the Path Sepcified" the same error for the Central Admin app pool

can the "enumservices" stsadm.exe switch help?

I attached the stsadm.exe -o enumservices output

<Services>
  <Service>
    <Type>Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Type>
    <Name />
    <DisplayName>Windows SharePoint Services Web Application</DisplayName>
    <Status>Disabled</Status>
  </Service>
  <Service>
    <Type>Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Type>
    <Name>WSS_Administration</Name>
    <DisplayName>Central Administration</DisplayName>
    <Status>Disabled</Status>
  </Service>
  <Service>
    <Type>Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationService, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Type>
    <Name>SPAdmin</Name>
    <DisplayName>Windows SharePoint Services Administration</DisplayName>
    <Status />
  </Service>
  <Service>
    <Type>Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPDatabaseService, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Type>
    <Name />
    <DisplayName>Windows SharePoint Services Database</DisplayName>
    <Status>Online</Status>
  </Service>
  <Service>
    <Type>Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPDatabaseService, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Type>
    <Name />
    <DisplayName>Windows SharePoint Services Database</DisplayName>
    <Status>Online</Status>
  </Service>
  <Service>
    <Type>Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPTimerService, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Type>
    <Name>SPTimerV3</Name>
    <DisplayName>Windows SharePoint Services Timer</DisplayName>
    <Status />
  </Service>
  <Service>
    <Type>Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchService, Microsoft.SharePoint.Search, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Type>
    <Name>SPSearch</Name>
    <DisplayName>Windows SharePoint Services Help Search</DisplayName>
    <Status>Online</Status>
  </Service>
  <Service>
    <Type>Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchService, Microsoft.SharePoint.Search, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Type>
    <Name>SPSearch</Name>
    <DisplayName>Windows SharePoint Services Help Search</DisplayName>
    <Status>Disabled</Status>
  </Service>
  <Service>
    <Type>Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPIncomingEmailService, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Type>
    <Name />
    <DisplayName>Windows SharePoint Services Incoming E-Mail</DisplayName>
    <Status>Disabled</Status>
  </Service>
</Services>

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Try this:

stsadm -o provisionservice -action start -servicename Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationService

I get error "Missing service type"

this is the syntax it gave me to use

stsadm.exe -o provisionservice -action <start/stop> -servicetype <servicetype (namespace or assembly qualified name if not SharePoint service)> [-servicename <servicename>]

what do I put in Service Type?

Thank you

hmm, got this error now

The service name and type specified are not valid. The service may not be instal
led or may not have been specified with the namespace or assembly qualified name
, which is case sensitive and required for services not in SharePoint. Additiona
l information:

Ah... Sorry, that is the obsolete way and doesn't work in 2007 anymore... You nned to use psconfig.exe... Here is a sample:

psconfig.exe -cmd adminvs -provision -port 8080 -windowsauthprovider onlyusentlm

You can get help for the command line here:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/baa28dbd-53da-4fd1-b75c-2f0b8fb719461033.mspx?mfr=true

I used this command instead

stsadm -o provisionservice -action start -servicename WSS_Administration -servicetype  Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService

and it's back on

Thank you guys so much

Ah!  Good to hear :)  Nice to know that it does still work for configured admin services...  Haven't had to use it yet in 2007...