Permissions Needed on SNA Server Services User Account

The services installed by SNA Server version 3.0 and later run under a user account context. This user account is set to be a domain administrator with additional permissions. Though Microsoft recommends that the user context not be changed after initial installation, some instances may arise where the service user account needs to be changed to a different user. If this user context does not have the correct permissions, the services may fail to start and cause SNA Server to fail.

In most cases when the SNA Server services fail to start, it is the result of the services[ASCII 146] user password being changed, the user account being deleted, or the user being deleted and re-added through the Windows NT User Manager utility. Also note that if the user account that the SNA Server services are running under does not have "Password Never Expires" selected under that user profile, every time the password for this user is changed, each SNA Server service must be manually changed to reflect the new password. This is not done dynamically and must be done by the administrator. This can be a source of more administrative overhead and greater chance of incorrect settings being made to the SNA Server services.

By default, the SNA Server installer creates a user account with domain administrator privileges and some additional privileges (or modifies a pre- existing user account with privileges to this level) for use by the SNA Server services. If SNA Server is being installed on a Windows NT Server computer that is not participating in a domain (that is, a workgroup), the account is added to the local Administrators group. If it is in a Windows NT domain, the installer adds the account to the domain administrators group. If it is a Windows NT member server, the account is also added to the local Administrators group.

A minimum of three privileges is required for a new service account to work with the SNA Server services. These include:

• Logon as a service (se_service_logon_name privilege)
• Act as part of operating system (se_tcb_name privilege)
• Manage auditing and security log (se_audit_name privilege)

The SnaBase service and SNA Server service also require the following privilege (which the DMOD grants during runtime):

• Generate security audits (se_security_name)

The following privileges can be added but are not required:

• Take ownership of files or other objects
• Backup and restore

Changes to the user account are made through the User Account Manager in Windows NT. Services can be changed by going to Control Panel and double- clicking Services.

Most issues involving a problem with the SNA Server services can be resolved by saving the snaroot\System\Config\Com.cfg file, removing SNA Server, and reinstalling SNA Server. This re-writes the registry and updates the user manager with an account that has the correct permissions and service dependencies.