ECM - Unable to start FCR due to a logon failure.

Question

Why am I unable to apply settings within the Enterprise Configuration Manager?

Symptoms

Problem 1:

Replication is not working correctly, you have noticed that files and information is not replicating between your servers as expected.

Problem 2:

When setting up multiple servers in an Enterprise an error is reported when it is trying to start the Replication services.

These problems may be related and can have the same cause and solution.

You have just installed or extended Ranger onto a server. You have then started Enterprise Configuration Manager in order to add the server into the Enterprise.

The following error has been reported 'unable to start server FCM due to logon failure.

Cause

Replication problems can be caused by many problems, such as services not being started, permissions not being set or trusts not being established between domains.

Resolution

If the error occurred during an install, upgrade or extend then the setup package may still be running. It is possible to leave the setup package running, resolve the issue and then return back to the ECM to apply the settings out and then continue with the setup.

To establish why the error occurred open the services console and check to see if both the File Change Replicator and File Change Monitor are installed and are started. If they are not started try to start them manually.

If the services fail to start it would indicate a problem with the original installation of the services and would explain why the ECM failed to apply the configuration settings.

To find out why the services failed you then need to check the servers event logs. There should be an error from the File Change Monitor or Replicator service. The error detail should reflect the error displayed by the ECM.

If the event error confirms it was due to a logon failure then you need to reset the service logon account passwords and then reset the services credentials to match. Go to instructions to find out how to reset these.

Instructions

Open Active Directory Users and Computers and find the FCRUser and FCMUser. Change both user accounts password to something you will remember for later use.

If you see multiple instances of the accounts (see above) then delete the duplicated user account (username with user sid information) leaving just the two original accounts.

Once the passwords have been changed you have allowed enough time for the servers to replicate this change alternatively force a synchronisation between your Domain Controllers. If you have multiple servers running Ranger 5 then you will need to perform the following steps on each of these servers.

Go to the services console and for both File Change Monitor and Replicator go to the service properties (see below) and change the logon password to match the new password.

Testing

Go to the services console and try to start the services manually. Both services should start without error (check event logs to make sure no errors are logged).

If both services start manually go back to the ECM and retry saving the network settings. If the ECM returns with 'Successfully applied' you have fixed the problem and the servers should be replicating.

If the error occurring during a Ranger install, upgrade or extend then return back to the setup package wizard and try to continue the process. It should now check the ECM has been run and allow you to continue finishing the installation.