SQL Configuration Manager Error - Cannot connect to WMI provider 1

[fuzzyocelot]

Hi everyone!

I'm stumped on this one and would appreciate any help. Everything worked great on the server until yesterday. The network and server guys say they didn't change anything on the domain or the server. I know I didn't change anything.

The System: SQL Server 2005 x64 SP2 on Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 SP2

When I try to open the SQL Configuration Manager on the server, I get this error:

Cannot connect to WMI provider. You do not have permissions or the server is unreachable. Note that you can only manage SQL Server 2005 servers with SQL Server Configuration Manager.
Access is denied. [0x80070005]

It was working fine for the last month and fine a few days ago. I noticed this error yesterday and I am stumped!

I can open Management Studio on the server and connect to the local instance just fine.

When I open Reporting Services Configuration Manager, I get this error:

A connection to the computer cannot be established.
Details:
Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))

When I try to open Surface Area Configuration, I get this error:

Computer localhost does not exist on the network, or the computer cannot be configured remotely. Verify that the remote computer has the required Windows Management Instrumentation components and then try again. (SQLSAC)

Additional information:
An exception occurred in SMO while trying to manage a service (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)
Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))
(mscorlib)

I went to the blog here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/echarran/archive/2006/01/03/509061.aspx

I tried the solution listed and ran this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared>mofcomp "C:\Program Files
(x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sqlmgmproviderxpsp2up.mof"

When I ran it, I received this error:

Microsoft (R) 32-bit MOF Compiler Version 5.2.3790.1830
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corp. 1997-2001. All rights reserved.
Parsing MOF file: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sqlmgmpr
oviderxpsp2up.mof
MOF file has been successfully parsed
Storing data in the repository...
An error occurred while opening the namespace for object 1 defined on lines 4 -
7:
Error Number: 0x80070005, Facility: Win32
Description: Access is denied.
Compiler returned error 0x80070005

I Google'd that error and ran across a thread on another forum that said to check the access and launch permissions via “Dcomcnfg”. I did that and it looked okay to me. Here’s what is set via Component services --> Computers --> Configure My Computer :

Access Permissions: 
Edit Limits --> ANONYMOUS LOGON has Local Access and Everyone has Local and Remote Access

Edit Defaults --> SYSTEM, INTERACTIVE, NETWORK all have Local and Remote Access permissions

Default Launch Permissions:
Edit Limits --> MACHINE\Administrators has Local and Remote Launch, Local and Remote Activation. Everyone has Local Launch and Local Activation)

Edit Default --> SYSTEM, INTERACTIVE, NETWORK all have Local and Remote Launch permissions, as well as Local and Remote Activation

I need to change this to a domain account but right now the SQL Server services are all running under the local system account.

Under Services (for Windows), the Windows Management Instrumentation service is set to Automatic and is running. The Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extensions services was set to manual and was not running. I set it to automatic and set it to run. I get the same errors.

I open up IIS Manager and I see nothing listed. I try to connect to the server and it says "You have been denied access to this machine".

We're using Active Directory. This server is on the same domain that I'm on. I am in an Active Directory Group which is a member of the Local Administrators Group on the server.

Nothing shows up in the Event Viewer when I try to access these SQL configuration tools.

I rebooted the server yesterday but that didn't fix anything.

Does anyone have any ideas what else I can check or how to fix this? I would really appreciate it!

Thanks!!!

 

[SQLWilts]

What are your windows permissions on the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server folder (x86 and 64 bit folders)?

Make sure that the SQL agent has full permissions on these folders.

I will keep looking because I resolved the same issue a month or so ago - I just have to remember how - it was something simple, I remember that.

 

[fuzzyocelot]

Thanks for replying.

The windows permissions on those folders (x86 and 64 bit) are fine - admins have full control, system has full control, and users have read/execute and list folder contents. I checked the other folders such as Windows and the permissions are the same. The databases are running fine. SQL Server itself seems okay. I can open the Management Studio without any problems. Although, I can't start SSIS. It says I don't have permission. I'm a local admin on the server! Weird.

We realized yesterday that the problem is much larger than we thought. We can't access IIS either. When we open the IIS Manager, it shows nothing. When we click on it, we get "Access is denied". One of the admin guys reinstalled IIS but that didn't do anything. In fact, he said it's installed but the server isn't acting like it's installed. Very strange!

What's really scary (but comforting in a way) is that the network admins get the exact same problems when they log into the server as local administrators!

We can't even search the folders for files. Nothing happens when we try to search. You can't even do Windows updates! We know that there were no updates to the server in the last couple of months. We are all very stumped as to what the problem is or what caused it in the first place.

I'm starting to think the server is hosed for some reason. I'm glad we have the SQL databases backed up to tape!

 

[SQLWilts]

Hmmm is this server open to the internet?
I am deperately trying to remember what the solution was when I had this.

I have a feeling that it was some sort of BHO in the browser

 

[fuzzyocelot]

No, the server is not open to the Internet. I'm starting to think the server is "hosed". The server guys are stumped as well. They tried disconnecting it from the domain and reconnecting it. That didn't work either.

The latest problem is that the SQL jobs failed last night. They were running fine earlier this week even with the server problems we're having.

The error message is "The job failed. The owner () of job Backup All Databases does not have server access." I'm the owner of that job (i.e. my domain account). I'm currently connected to the databases on the server through Management Studio on my computer with my domain account (windows authentication). My domain account is in a domain group that is a member of the administrators group on the server. That particular job just runs a stored procedure that contains backup database commands. I ran the stored procedure itself and had no errors. The agent is running under the local system account.

I appreciate your trying to help. Thanks

 

[SQLWilts]

I know about that last job failure error.
Change the job owner to sa (or a SQL login with relevant heavy authority on the server) and all will be fine and dandy.
It happened to me when I changed my domain password and I was the owner of a couple of jobs. There are a few posts on the web about that one.
What do you mean by "hosed"?

 

[fuzzyocelot]

I'll try changing the owner to the sa account and see if that helps. That's probably the problem with the jobs.

What I meant by the server being "hosed" is that it's probably messed up beyond repair. However, I ran across a KB article this morning that might help. I forwarded it to the server guys to see what they think. It's KB 909444 which talks about an MS security bulletin and missing permissions on the windows registration folder. I think that might be our problem with the server but I'll wait to see what the server guys think.

 

[SQLWilts]

Yes, I know I asked about permissions earlier - am still trying to remember what caused my problems, because we fixed them in the end.
Problem is that was at my last contract and I no longer have acess to that helpdesk so I can't search on it.

 

[fuzzyocelot]

Not a problem. I'm hoping the KB article will shed some light on the problem for us. If it does, I'll post a comment on it here.

Your suggestion to change the owner of the jobs worked! I don't know why I didn't think of that. Duh! The jobs run fine now. Thanks!

 

[SQLWilts]

Cool.
That looks suspiciously like the problem you are experiencing!

Someone needs to shoot those damn security pixies

 

[fuzzyocelot]

We're still have major problems with the server but at least the jobs are running.

One of our server guys tried to set permissions on the windows registration folder but it wouldn't let him. It's looking more and more like we're going to have to rebuild the server. Something I'm not looking forward to.

Hey, maybe a gremlin messed up the server! It's in cahoots with those darn security pixies! ;-)

 

[SQLWilts]

OR, as a last resort before rebuilding it:
Sign on at the console - not /console option in mstsc as the local admin
Isolate the machine from the network (disable the network connections)
Remove all users and permissions on all folders with the exception of the local admin
Add the permissions back and see what happens.

It really does sound like the pixies have had a party though

 

[fuzzyocelot]

I'll see what I can do. Thanks!

 

[fuzzyocelot]

One of our server guys fixed it! Yay!

The server let him install Windows Updates and re-install IIS afterwards. Someone else tried that before but it wouldn't let him do it. So maybe it had something to do with the order he did those tasks? We're not sure but it works! Woo hoo! No rebuild!

 

[SQLWilts]

Brill! At least one of them is fixed - now work on the other!!!!
I am still convinced that it has something to do with security pixies

 

[fuzzyocelot]

It's been a while but I thought I should update this thread in case someone else runs into this problem.

To sum it up, the server died in January. May it rest in peace. Of course, it happened when I was out of the state on vacation.

It was a virtual server and apparently it had an old version of the ESX software on it that has a known bug. So, in short, the server had to be completely rebuilt.

The bad news is we were almost done migrating from our old development server to this new one. We had migrated almost all of the 30+ databases over, all the jobs, all the packages, etc. It was pretty depressing. The good news is we still had our old development server running.

The new server has been rebuilt but we're still having issues with it. If I have to, I'll start a new post since it's a rebuilt server. Right now we can't even install SQL Server 2005 on it. So 64-bit virtual servers aren't giving me a warm fuzzy right now. I'm worried about our 64-bit cluster installation coming up. At least it's not virtual.

Sorry for the long post but I just figured I'd warn someone out there about an ESX bug.

 

[fuzzyocelot]

Oh and our tape backups were corrupted too. We couldn't recover anything usable from the tapes.