Veeam Agent for Windows Service Fails to Start with RPC Error

[jamiemoney]

I wanted to give a heads up, I have a client who was running into an issue where the service for Veeam Windows Agent v4.0.1.2169 on Server 2012 suddenly would not start. Every time it gave the error:

Code: Select all

Service cannot be started. Veeam.Backup.Common.CConnectionFailedException: [This server] Failed to connect to Installer service. ---> Veeam.Backup.Common.CConnectionFailedException: [This server] Failed to connect to Installer service. ---> System.Exception: [This server] Failed to discover Installer service. ---> System.Exception: [This server] Failed to check whether remote Installer service is available. ---> System.ApplicationException: The RPC server is unavailable
RPC function call failed. Function name: [GetSvcVersion]. Target machine: [127.0.0.1].
   at VeeamProxyClient.RegenerateCLRException(exception* excBase)
   at VeeamProxyClient.CCliVeeamDeployer.PingService()
   at Veeam.Backup.ProxyProvider.CProxyRawDeployerService.TestConnection(String srvName, CCliVeeamDeployer veeamDeployer)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Veeam.Backup.ProxyProvider.CProxyRawDeployerService.Connect(String srvName, IPAddress[] ips, CCredentials creds, Int32 configPort, Boolean install)
   at Veeam.Backup.ProxyProvider.CPro...

After trying a number of things I remembered this was a domain controller which we had patched this server against the Zerologon (CVE-2020-1472) and enabled enforcement of secure RPC via the registry key

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HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters DWORD FullSecureChannelProtection = 1

Once I set the key back to 0 and rebooted the Veeam Agent service started right up.

[Dima P.]

Hello jamiemoney,

Sorry to hear that you've faced this issue and thanks for you for sharing the solution with the community. I've asked QA folks to doublecheck this behavior. Cheers!

[Dima P.]

Hi,

We've made several tests on domain controllers with the mentioned security patch installed and were unable to reproduce this behavior. @jamiemoney, any change you still have that agent installation available and you can share the application logs with us? Thank you in advance!

[Dima P.]

Update: we've finalized all the tests in our lab and were not able to confirm this issue. If anyone sees the described behavior please open a support case and update this thread with the case id. Cheers!

[ledoktre]

Hello,

I have a server 2012 I needed to reload over the weekend [edit, a couple weekends ago now] and went to reinstall the latest veer agent and the service fails to start. I have followed some instructions about going and deleting C:\ProgramData\Veeam\EndpointData and C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server Local DB\Instances\VeeamEndPoint, setting a registry key to have it recreate the database, but no joy.

I also tried a few times to uninstall, reboot, and reinstall, no go. The veer service is set to use system account. One of our techs I found out did inadvertently when trying to set permissions on the C:\Data folder (where the shares all live) missed and took ownership of of some portion of the files on C: to Administrator.

I did run a command to reset C:\ProgramData back to default but I am not sure what else would be specific to Veeam. I do know everything else on the system is working just fine.

Originally when posting this, I had mentioned that I have log files I can post, someone just let me know. I am new to the forum, and I do not know what is expected. Since I now know that we need to include a case number as well or your post will get booted, then I suppose y'all would see the case notes and attachments anyway. As I am copying and pasting this back in, I see a note in red up at the top by the subject. I was posting it after the end of a LONG weekend. 35 hours in 3 days over a holiday weekend. I guess I just missed it.

Please, looking for some help here, not sure how to get this sorted out and how to allow the service to start.

Thanks,

[ledoktre]

I can confirm I had the exact same issue. Been fighting with this for about 9 or 10 days. I had reloaded a server 2012 box (also a domain controller), updated with all the latest security patches etc, and latest version of Veeam (5.0.0.4301). Could not get it to work. Been fighting to get a ticket posted as well (new to the forum) - had missed the part about including a case number. Anyway, I stumbled across this article, tried it and I'll be hanged. Works fine now.

I too would like to figure out whats going on.

Error log:

Service cannot be started. Veeam.Backup.Common.CConnectionFailedException: [This server] Failed to connect to Installer service. ---> Veeam.Backup.Common.CConnectionFailedException: [This server] Failed to connect to Installer service. ---> System.Exception: [This server] Failed to discover Installer service. ---> System.Exception: [This server] Failed to check whether remote Installer service is available. ---> System.ApplicationException: The RPC server is unavailable
RPC function call failed. Function name: [GetSvcVersion]. Target machine: [127.0.0.1].
at VeeamProxyClient.RegenerateCLRException(exception* excBase)
at VeeamProxyClient.CCliVeeamDeployer.PingService()
at Veeam.Backup.ProxyProvider.CProxyRawDeployerService.TestConnection(String srvName, CCliVeeamDeployer veeamDeployer)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Veeam.Backup.ProxyProvider.CProxyRawDeployerService.Connect(String srvName, IPAddress[] ips, CCredentials creds, Int32 configPort, Boolean install)
at Veeam.Backup.ProxyProvider.CPro...

[ledoktre]

Spoke too soon. It started up, but on next reboot it seems to be dead again. Sighs.

[Natalia Lupacheva]

Hi @l@ledoktre,

Moved your initial post to the existing thread to keep similar issues together.
If the suggested solution didn't work, please keep working with Support and keep us informed.

Thanks!

[Dima P.]

Folks,

If you have this issue with Windows Server 2012R2 please make sure that you have Windows Server 2012 R2 Update (KB2919355) installed. Cheers!

[ledoktre]

The server in question is just a regular Server 2012 (not R2). It has all the latest windows updates applied, including the April 2021 rollout.

Its a little odd - when I changed the registry entry referenced by the OP, I restrted the netlogon service and attempted to start the Veeam service. Wouldn't work. I had to reboot for another reason and unexpectedly saw the service startup. I thought, wow, we got it licked! But on the next and future reboots it would not start. When it was briefly working, I tried to access had a backup set on an ioSafe external drive (encrypted with a veeam password). Im not sure if that was because it was an older version that created it or if something even then wasn't working right. Was hoping to connect the new backup job with the old backup set. Since the reboot and service won't work, when I try to open a backup set it gives me an SQL error of some sorts.

[Dima P.]

Please PM me your contact email address, I'll ask our support team to reach you.