This is due to problem with the sapstarsrv.
Restart the sapstartsrv service and see if that helps.
Also search for HTTP/1.1 401 on SMP and you will see few SAP note addressing this issue.
1563660 - sapcontrol, <sid>adm authorization issues (SUM)
1361528 - Error Message - FAIL: HTTP error, HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
Regards
RB