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Error in configuration wizard while trying to add new SharePoint Server to an existing Farm [Scale out] after reset the Farm passphrase

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I came across small SharePoint 2010 Farm which the administrator forgot the passphrase of the Farm so I reset the passphrase by followed the steps in the below URL because I want to scale out the Farm by adding new Frontend server.

https://sptwentyten.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/reset-the-farm-passphrase-in-sharepoint-2010/

 

  • Open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell (Start > All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Management Shell)
  • Enter this at the PowerShell prompt:
    • $passphrase = ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText -Force
  • Input the new passphrase and hit Enter
  • Enter this at the PowerShell prompt:
    • Set-SPPassPhrase -PassPhrase $passphrase -Confirm
  • You will be asked to confirm the passphrase by re-entering it
  • Re-enter the passphrase and hit Enter
  • You will be asked if you are sure that you want to perform this action, type Y (for Yes) and hit Enter
  • Your farm passphrase has now been reset!

So then I installed the setup files of SharePoint 2010 and when I run the Configuration wizard  in the new server I got the following error in step 3:

Failed to connect to the configuration database.
An exception of type System.InvalidOperationException was thrown.  Additional exception information: There was an error encrypting or decrypting credentials. Either a credential update is currently being performed, or you must update the farm account credentials on this server before you can perform this task.

So to fix the above problem do the following:

  1. Go to SharePoint Server which host the Central administration
  2. Go to run and then open Services.msc
  3. Restart these services
     
  4. Then go to new server and re-run the configuration wizard again.
  5. configured successfully.

Note:You have to Login to the new server by Farm service account who has the following permissions:

  1. Domain user account and not domain admin user.
  2. This user Belong to the following SQL Roles
    1. Public
    2. Securityadmin
    3. Dbcreator

        3. Belong to Local administrators group of SharePoint servers

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 25, 2011
    Thanks Fadi, I already faced the same problem and your article save my time....

  • Anonymous
    July 20, 2012
    Thanks Fadi. This was really helpful !

  • Anonymous
    February 26, 2013
    Thanks a lot,saved my time...!

  • Anonymous
    March 23, 2014
    Great Post...!!

  • Anonymous
    August 18, 2014
    Thanks Fadi, Saved me lot of time, with your article

  • Anonymous
    September 17, 2014
    Thanks Fadi, I tried these steps, but I still get the decryption error.

  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2015
    Fadi, thank you very much, you are a life saver!