After installing SSAS, using the tabular model, you receive the error “The service cannot be started: The following system error occurred:  A required privilege is not held by the client.” when trying to start the service.

Examining http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175371.aspx shows that the only security privilege needed for the SSAS service account is the “Log on as a service” privilege.

Alas, this is not accurate. When running in the tabular model mode, the service account also needs the “Increase a process working set” privilege.

In Windows, under a default installation, the local group “Users” has this privilege (which would allow any user on the system to have this privilege) as seen below:

However, many companies will lock down the security policies and remove this privilege. This is apparently a problem because there are a lot of requests on the internet for this issue. The advice generally given is to just run SSAS as an administrator – which is not a good choice, and may not be an option in your company. Now there is a solution.

I’ve filed a connect item to correct the documentation at https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/869677/ssas-privileges-incorrectly-specified – please consider going out there and voting for it.