Windows Sync Manager shows error message "Microsoft SQL Server could not save the security changes" when specifying user/password for publisher/distributor
Symptoms
In pull subscriptions, when you use Windows Synchronization Manager to synchronize, it will ask for security information to connect to publisher and distributor. As soon as you click ON on the dialog box, it would show error message
Microsoft SQL Server could not save the security changes
Cause
Current logged on user does not have adequate permissions over registry entries
Resolution
Collect Process Monitor Logs and you will see ACCESS DENIED for couple of registry keys including the ones belonging to SQL Server. In a specific scenario they were
Operation | Path | Result | Detail |
RegCreateKey | HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\Replication\Subscriptions\<Subscription> | ACCESS DENIED | Desired Access: Write |
RegCreateKey | HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\Replication\Subscription\<Subscription> | ACCESS DENIED | Desired Access: Write |
RegCreateKey | HKLM\SOFTWARE\Description | ACCESS DENIED | Desired Access: Maximum Allowed |
RegOpenKey | HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\Client\SNI10.0 | ACCESS DENIED | Desired Access: Write |
RegOpenKey | HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2\Parameters | ACCESS DENIED | Desired Access: All Access |
RegOpenKey | HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2\Parameters | ACCESS DENIED | Desired Access: All Access |
Ensure that the current logged on account has adequate permissions over these registry keys (or whichever they turn out to be in ProcMon Logs.)
Comments
Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Hello Orr, First you may want to check if your account has read/write permissions over the registry keys mentioned in above blog post. If that doesn't help then you can leverage the tool Process Monitor [http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx] to find out what registry keys are having permission issues. -Thanks, Anurag SharmaAnonymous
February 14, 2010
I tried running Sync Center as administrator, but is still cannot save the passwords. What am I doing wrong? Do someone know the exact registry keys to add?Anonymous
February 14, 2010
I tried running Sync Center as administrator, but is still cannot save the passwords. What am I doing wrong? Do someone know the exact registry keys to add?Anonymous
December 29, 2010
Hi Anurag. Giving the user the permissions solved the error message. Thank you for that. But using the Process Monitor showed me, that mobsync doesn't save the passwords specified for sql authentication of the publisher, distributor, or subscription. When trying to synchronize, it tries to read the fields, doesn't find them and prompts for the passwords every sync. Keys like DistributorEncryptedPassword DistributorEncryptedPasswordBinary same for Subscription and Publisher Do you know a fix for that, I have that issue on xp, vista plus 7. Thanks, Daniel