Free space check "Error: Access denied" - Fixed

[Kren]

Morning all
Hoping for a bit of help with this odd issue I'm seeing.

We've not long installed Hostmon 9.46 in our organisation. So far I've set up about 500 tests, and all was going well.

But, I've got a free space check that is returning "Error: Access is denied" and refusing to work.

I'm trying to run a test against the C: drive on a target host, running Windows 2000. This test runs fine on 30 other legacy servers, all configured the same way, but not on this one.

I'm logged into the Hostmon server via RDC with an account called "euroboss". This is a member of the Domain Admins group. It's also a member of the local admins group on the target server.

I cleared the security log on the machine in question, and then tried refreshing the test. I saw the logon attempt come up and be authorised:

• Event Type: Success Audit
  Event Source: Security
  Event Category: Logon/Logoff
  Event ID: 540
  Date: 4/9/2013
  Time: 11:24:25 AM
  User: EUROPE\euroboss
  Computer: UKBINT01
  Description:
  Successful Network Logon:
  User Name: EuroBoss
  Domain: EUROPE
  Logon ID: (0x0,0xBBD1F1A2)
  Logon Type: 3
  Logon Process: Kerberos
  Authentication Package: Kerberos
  Workstation Name:

From explorer, on the server machine, I can browse to \\ukbint01\c$ and my credentials will open the connection fine.

so - from what I can see, the same account is being used globally, working on 30/31 sites, and not on 1/31. It's a member of the correct admin groups, and works from a windows connectivity point of view, but for some reason Hostmon is returning "Access Denied".

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice please?

[Kren]

Hostmonitor 9.46 is being run on a HP DL380 G6, 12Gb RAM, 2 X 2.8Ghz CPUs. Windows 2008R2, member of domain "Europe"
C 35 free of 68Gb
D 229 free of 273Gb
E 393 free of 1060Gb

Target machine is a Compaq deskpro, Pentium 4 2.8Ghz, 1Gb RAM, Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
C 6 free of 34Gb
D 2 free of 3Gb

[KS-Soft Europe]

What exactly test method do you use? UNC (availability/free space)? Drive Free Space?
Could you please check/confirm the following:
1. HostMonitor and Target system are in the same Domain
2. User account euroboss belongs to local administrators on Target system
3. Correct account credentials are specified in Connection Manager for Target system and "WMI / Drive Free Space" is marked.
Have you tried to restart remote system?

What other test methods are performed for that remote system?

[Kren]

Test method = "Drive Free Space", using "Check listed drives" with a value of C:

1 - Hostmonitor server and target system are both in the same domain - "EUROPE"

2 - User account "EUROBOSS" is a member of Domain Admins, and both Domain Admins and Euroboss are members of the local administrators group on the target machine

3 - Connection Manager. So far I had not used this. This test method works fine for accessing our other 30 sites, each with a legacy Windows 2000 machine using the default credentials. I will try setting up a connection profile now.
I haven't restarted the target system - I can arrange an outage (site processes 24 * 7) if you think it will help.

Thanks for the response.

[KS-Soft]

3 - Connection Manager. So far I had not used this. This test method works fine for accessing our other 30 sites, each with a legacy Windows 2000 machine using the default credentials. I will try setting up a connection profile now.

That's probably the reason.
If you did not setup correct account, Windows may use current user account or connections already established by 3rd party software or connection established by HostMonitor itself (when HostMonitor makes connection for 1 test, it can be used by another test).
But if such test (without specified account) works today, it does not mean it will work tomorrow.

Please use Connection Manager, it allows to setup accounts for each system use one account for set of systems (using IP address range), also you may provide default account for all unlisted systems.
http://ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/mframe.h ... htm#conmgr

Regards
Alex

[Kren]

I've set up the connection manager, using the "*" special account to use as a default connection.

I did a flushdns, and then a displaydns to remove old entries.
I tried to ping the specific host that is throwing up errors - the ping resolves the hostname to an IP and is successful.
I can connect to the \\servername\c$ share using the default credentials that Hostmonitor is running under, and which is the same as the default connection string in connection manager.
The test in Hostmonitor itself still comes back as status Unknown, with the reply "Error:Access is denied".
I tried using the IP instead of the server name in the target host, and this made no difference.

I've checked on the server - there is no firewall running that is blocking RPC calls, and I can't see any other setting that would be preventing Hostmonitor from checking the drive space.

I also went and changed the connection manager and put in a specific connection string for \\servername, specifying my domain admin account to connect under. This also generated the same result.

Do you have any other ideas for troubleshooting?

[KS-Soft Europe]

It looks like DCOM/WMI access permission issue.
For Windows 2000 Target system, you may check DCOM/WMI permissions using the following steps:
1. Start dcomcnfg: Click Start, click Run, type dcomcnfg then click OK.
2. Select the Default Security tab
3. Under the Default Launch Permissions you need to make sure that the following users / groups have the Allow Launch permission: INTERACTIVE, SYSTEM and Administrators.
4. Select the Applications tab
5. Select Windows Management Instrumentation from list and click "Properties..." button.
6. Select Security tab and select Default options for Authentication Level, Launch Permissions and Access Permissions.

[Kren]

Thanks very much for the pointers - the DCOM settings had been messed up by a user. Reset, and now it looks to be scanning fine.

All working again now!

[KS-Soft Europe]

You are welcome!