SQL 2005 running on Windows 2008 - problem with MSDTC

  • Hi,

    Just wondered if anyone has seen this issue and found a way to resolve it. I have SQL 2005 (build 3050) running with no problems on Windows 2008 so long as the SQL service account is a local administrator. If it's just a local user, I get the following in the SQL error log when the service starts:

    [font="Courier New"]Attempting to initialize Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC). This is an informational message only. No user action is required.

    An error occurred while trying to determine the state of the RPCSS service. A call to "OpenServiceW" returned: 5(error not found). This is an informational message only. No user action is required.

    An attempt to connect to Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC) will be skipped because the RPCSS service doesn't appear to be started. Another attempt to connect to MS DTC will be made later. This is an informational message only. No user action is required.[/font]

    If I add the SQL server service account to the local admins group, I don't see this error, just normal startup for MSDTC.

    Has anyone else seen this and worked out how to run SQL with less than local admin rights on Windows 2008?

    Thanks

    Julia

  • I've always run SQL on a local admin account. What's the reason not to in this case?

    - Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
    Property of The Thread

    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon

  • Alternately, are you doing any distributed transactions? If not, then the error doesn't matter.

    - Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
    Property of The Thread

    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon

  • Running as local admin isn't the preferred option in this case - SQL needs to be running with minimal privileges (no problems doing this in Windows 2003). I'm not 100% sure if we're going to need MSDTC, but odds are we will, so I'd rather that works.

    Thanks

    Julia

  • Then you'll need to make sure the account running it has access to RPC and to the services associated with MSDTC.

    - Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
    Property of The Thread

    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon

  • Yes, but at the point that we started looking at granting access to various registry keys, we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and went back to Windows 2003 so we can meet our deadline!

    I'm planning to work through the issue on a VM, so will post back if I can a workaround.

    Thanks

    Julia

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply