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SQL login failure when running scheduled reports

Author: Luis Fernandes

Answer

PROBLEM

SQL login failure when running scheduled reports

ENVIRONMENT

  • GFI LanGuard
  • GFI EndPointSecurity
  • All Supported Environments

SOLUTION

There are 2 methods of authentication supported by GFI products: Windows authentication & SQL server authentication (or mixed authentication).

The Windows authentication mode allows you to connect and login to the SQL Server using the credentials of a Windows domain user account. This type of authentication is useful for environments where all of your users are part of a Windows domain (i.e. users have a Windows NT/2000 user account and/or are a member of a group). In this case, access to the SQL Server is controlled by your Windows NT/2000 account or group, which is authenticated when you log on to the Windows operating system hosting the SQL Server.

The SQL Server authentication mode allows you to login/connect to the SQL Server directly by using SQL Server credentials. In this case you will have to create a user ID and Password in your SQL Server and set the server to allow logins by that particular user ID. This is useful when you have a mixed environment (e.g. Windows and Novell), or when you do not have administrative login rights on the remote machine hosting the SQL server.

You can choose any of the 2 above options to connect to the SQL Server machine. Should you experience login failures you must follow the following steps to correct the problem:

Windows Authentication

You need to run the GFI service using an account that has administrator rights to access the SQL Server machine. You can achieve this as follows:

  1. From the GFI machine go to Start > Run. Type services.msc and press Enter.
  2. Select the GFI service, right-click and select Stop.
  3. Right-click service again and select Properties.
  4. Go to Log On tab, select This Account and specify the administrator account to use.
  5. Press OK
  6. Select the same service again, right-click and select Start.

SQL Authentication

You first need to setup an account on your SQL server and then you must also configure ReportCenter to use SQL Server authentication as follows:

  1. Configure SQL server to accept SQL Authentication and configure the user account that will be used by GFI product to connect. If available use the SA account.
  2. From GFI Database Properties select Use SQL Authentication and specify the username and password of the account configured in step 1 above,
  3. Click Apply.

How do I configure SQL Server to accept SQL Authentication?https://www.gfi.com/support/products/gfi-oneguard/How-to-configure-Microsoft-SQL-Server-to-accept-SQL-Authentication-for-GFI-Software-products

CAUSE

This problem is usually encountered when the GFI Product service tries to connect to a remote SQL server machine for which it lacks administrative rights.