Agent refused to start - Logon failure

  • Thought I'd share my experience in case it saves someone else.

    I had installed an SQL 2008 x64 instance and could not get the Agent service to start. It would fail repeatedly and the event log showed a logon failure. It was set to use the same domain logon that every other SQL instance on the machine was using (a couple of SQL 2005 x64 instances).

    Turns out it was related to a domain change we made before SQL 2008 was installed. Although every other service, including SQL 2008 itself, was able to use the new domain's logon successfully, the 2008 Agent was failing. There was a HOSTS file that referenced the old domain with the machine's IP address. This apparently led the Agent service to think that there needed to be a trust relationship between the logon from the new domain and the old domain (which there isn't).

    Removing the entry from the HOSTS file and rebooting cleared up all issues.

    The clue was when I ran an IPCONFIG /DISPLAYDNS and saw the old domain name associated with the IP. It should be noted that the machine was in the new domain and IPCONFIG /ALL showed only the new domain.

    Not sure if this is a bug or "feature". I'd hate to think I could over-ride security by merely entering different domains in a HOSTS file.


    Have Fun!
    Ronzo

  • Thanks for the note.

    Were both the Agent service account and SQL Server service account on the same domain?

  • Hello,

    I have the same problem whether I am not sure that is for the same reason. Actually, I have created a package which is launched by the sqlserver agent. It worked well until I changed the password for my login to the server ( I have no idea whether it has any impact on the package or not??). The message that I’ve got is about these:

    [165] Erreur ODBC : Time waiting for the connection expired

    [298] Error SQLServer: Error from the network or an instance, being created during the SQL Server connection establishement. Can’t find or access to the server.

    [000] Can’t connect to the server « local ». SQLServer Agent can’t start

    The words might not be the same as they are sent by SQLServer because I had to translate them in English But if there is anything that is not clear, please tell me and I’ll try my best to … explain it in another way!

    Do you have any ideas please??

    Here are some more details that might be helpful :

    - I am member of sysadmin

    - There are more than 1 instance on the server

    - My account/the package has access to all the distant database that are used/called in the package

    Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

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