Error on SET Proxy Account

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Error on SET Proxy Account

Oleg Oransky

SSChasing Mays

Points: 625
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August 4, 2005 at 2:42 am

#94387

I'm trying to set a proxy account for the SQL agent. The user is Local
administrator on the SQL Server when I try to set the account I get a
message back that says
"The system cannot find the path specified."
I get the same error with TSQL too.
EXEC master..xp_sqlagent_proxy_account
'SET', N'MY_DOMAIN', N'Myadm', N'MyPassword'
My system :
Windows Server 2003 SP1
SQL Server 2000 SP4
August 8, 2005 at 8:00 am

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Glauco Costa Mr or Mrs. 500 Points: 547 More actions · Answer 1

Glauco Costa

Mr or Mrs. 500

Points: 547

August 15, 2005 at 12:26 pm

#582250

Verify this article in microsoft technet :

264155

Bill the Cat Right there with Babe Points: 749 More actions · Answer 2

Well, related to this, I went throught the same kind of problems (and many other people have too), I don't exactly know why the error was caused, but my issue was that once the proxy account was set using xp_sqlagent_proxy_account, it could never be reset, nor could the password be changed, due to the error "The system cannot find the path specified."

This error (I believe) is due to a registry path failure. I tracked it using RegMon with no success. However, the registry keys in question here are under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY\Policy\Secrets, a dirty little area of the registry that is generally hidden from access (Use RegEdt32, not RegEdit). I then overrode the security for this key (but not subkeys), specifiying that Administrators have full control. Ta-da, now I can see the dirty little secrets!!Under this, I was able to find 3 keys,

SQLSERVERAGENT_SQLAgentProxyDomain

SQLSERVERAGENT_SQLAgentProxyPassword

SQLSERVERAGENT_SQLAgentProxyUsername

After backing up these parts of the registry hives, I removed these keys, which then actually resulted in the proxy being removed, as EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_sqlagent_proxy_account N'DEL' was not working either (actually, once you try to run EXECUTE msdb.dbo.sp_set_sqlagent_properties @sysadmin_only = 1, internally this calls the delete function above anyhow, but neither of these worked). After removing the existing account data, I restarted the server for safety sake (but don't think I needed to), and was then able to create another proxy account. Still keep getting the invalid path error, but the proxy account works fine, and now I now how to manually clear and reset it. Hope that is of some help, as I could find no solutions from anyone else on the net.

George Georgov Newbie Points: 3 More actions · Answer 3

Well done. This is realy good. It work on single sql server. But on the cluster it is not workable.

If i apply this on the sql cluster, then it work only on one node, on other nodes not.

Can anyone help me with this problem.

Thanks George.

Bill the Cat Right there with Babe Points: 749 More actions · Answer 4

Sorry George, I tore down our cluster test harness a few weeks back, and I don't expect to set up another for about another 4-6 weeks. If you have not overcome your issue by then, I will try to investigate when I have a few minutes

Nappy-321910 SSC Enthusiast Points: 150 More actions · Answer 5

Have used this with a slight variation.

There were special rights on the security key for administrator. Not sure what would break if ai gave admin full rights.

I created a new user made the user admin and logged in with this user.

Regedt32 gave new user full rights and deleted the keys decribed above.

After logging out i deleted the user and (re)created the proxy.

And yes it works!!

ps i did NOT have to restart the server nor restart SQL

sqlbuff SSC Eights! Points: 964 More actions · Answer 6

Just wanted to mention that this thread saved my butt. I had a proxy account set up on a server whose domain controller went south. When they rebuilt the domain, it was given a new name. The proxy was set up for a user under the old domain, and I was unable to reset the proxy, or delete it. Thanks to Bill the Cat (love the name), I followed his advice to muck in the registry and remove the keys. I had to restart SQL Server in order to add the new proxy, but it worked.

Just wanted to mention this as I could find nothing referring to an orphaned Domain user that was set up as the proxy account.

Thanks for posting this thread!

Bill the Cat Right there with Babe Points: 749 More actions · Answer 7

Bill the Cat

Right there with Babe

Points: 749

November 14, 2006 at 10:49 am

#671723

My pleasure, happy to help!

Todd Stu Say Hey Kid Points: 690 More actions · Answer 8

this error can come from a couple issues.

the fix for me was to change the service account with enterprise manager which will grant needed local policy and confirm the exact case match of the service account.

with 2005 use the Configuration Manger to change sql accounts (this is especially critical for full text service)

Cheers,

Todd

Antony Symonds Ten Centuries Points: 1324 More actions · Answer 9

George Georgov (2/9/2006)
Well done. This is realy good. It work on single sql server. But on the cluster it is not workable.
If i apply this on the sql cluster, then it work only on one node, on other nodes not.
Can anyone help me with this problem.
Thanks George.

Gotta necro ths one as I have a cluster of servers. As soon as the cluster switches node to the passive side my code that creates a job and job step (requires the proxy agent) no longer works with an error of :-

Executed as user: gardman2\****ide. The process could not be created for step 1 of job 0x0B71F75516EF644DBC9B5B4BC35066AB (reason: A required privilege is not held by the client). The step failed.

(Works fine on the live side)

So i went to the proxy agent option and tried re entering the user information in SQL server agent properties and i get : -

"Unable to set the SQL agent proxy account because of the reason listed below. The system cannot find the path specified"

Anyone find out how to make the other side of a cluster work?

Time to make a change

anachico Valued Member Points: 72 More actions · Answer 10

This post is very usefull, thank you so much!

I would only have one more question, how do I edit the registry? As far as I know this is very sensitive and I could seriously damage my server by doing it...

Your help is very appreciated!

Ana

EdVassie SSC Guru Points: 60472 More actions · Answer 11

It is a long time since I used SQL Server 2000, and it took me a long time to find the answer.

The good news is you do not need to edit the registry. You just need to copy a folder.

Look for the \1033 folder in the installation path ...\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Binn\Resources\1033

The \1033 folder has resources for locale 1033 (USA :w00t: ). You need a resource folder for your locale. Look at http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/infopath/HP100305701033.aspx to find your locale. If like me you are in the UK 😀 you need a folder named \2057.

Therefore for me the fix is to copy the entire \1033 folder to be a \2057 folder. Make sure you keep the \1033 folder or other things might go wrong.

There is another gotcha with SQL Server 2000 proxy. The password field in Enterprise Manager will allow you to insert a long password but will only store the first 15 characters. Therefore make sure the password for your proxy account is no longer than 15 characters.

Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara

anachico Valued Member Points: 72 More actions · Answer 12

Ed,

Thank you so much for your answer.

I've tried to do what you advise. But though I live in Mexico City, my server is installed in US English (the closeness, you know... :alien: )

Also, when I look for this folder: \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Binn\Resources\1033 I realize that it doesn't exist. Instead I find this path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\COM\Resources\1033. I thought maybe that was the problem, so I copied the directory \1033 of the second path and created a path just like the one you showed. It wouldn't work anyway...

Do yo have any other idea? Can you tell me how did you found what was the path missing?

Thank you very much! I know it has been a long time since you left SQL Server 2000 behind!

Ana

EdVassie SSC Guru Points: 60472 More actions · Answer 13

I am sure there was a KB article about this problem (or maybe we got the details direct from Product Support), but I cannot find any KB article now. If you google enough you can find some posts about needing a copy of the /1033 folder. If you have installed SQL Server not on the system disk or with non-default folder paths, then the path reference I gave will need adjusting.

Copying the /1033 folder to our own locale name definitly fixed the problem in my old place. I will look at home to see if I can find anything more.

Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara