VMM 2012 R2 service crashes on start with exception code 0xe0434352

Was working on a new VMM 2012 R2 install for a Windows Azure Pack POC and spent the better part of a day dealing with a failing VMM Service. SQL 2012 SP1 had been installed on the same server and during install, VMM was configured to run under the local SYSTEM account and use the local SQL instance. Installation completed successfully, but the VMM service would not start, logging the following errors in the Application log in Event Viewer:

Log Name: Application
Source: .NET Runtime
Date: 12/31/2013 12:43:27 PM
Event ID: 1026
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: AZPK01
Description:
Application: vmmservice.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.AggregateException
Stack:
at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Engine.VirtualManagerService.WaitForStartupTasks()
at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Engine.VirtualManagerService.TimeStartupMethod(System.String, TimedStartupMethod)
at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Engine.VirtualManagerService.ExecuteRealEngineStartup()
at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Engine.VirtualManagerService.TryStart(System.Object)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean)
at System.Threading.TimerQueueTimer.CallCallback()
at System.Threading.TimerQueueTimer.Fire()
at System.Threading.TimerQueue.FireNextTimers()

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: 12/31/2013 12:43:28 PM
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: (100)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: AZPK01
Description:
Faulting application name: vmmservice.exe, version: 3.2.7510.0, time stamp: 0x522d2a8a
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 6.3.9600.16408, time stamp: 0x523d557d
Exception code: 0xe0434352
Fault offset: 0x000000000000ab78
Faulting process id: 0x10ac
Faulting application start time: 0x01cf064fc9e2947a
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012 R2\Virtual Machine Manager\Bin\vmmservice.exe
Faulting module path: C:\windows\system32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: 0e0178f3-7243-11e3-80bb-001dd8b71c66
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

I attempted re-installing VMM 2012 R2 and selected a domain account during installation, but had the same result. I enabled VMM Tracing to collect debug logging and was seeing various SQL exceptions:

[0]0BAC.06EC::‎2013‎-‎12‎-‎31 12:46:04.590 [Microsoft-VirtualMachineManager-Debug]4,2,Catalog.cs,1077,SqlException [ex#4f] caught by scope.Complete !!! (catch SqlException) [[(SqlException#62f6e9) System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): Could not obtain information about Windows NT group/user ‘DOMAIN\jeff’, error code 0x5.

I was finally able to find a helpful error message in the standard VMM logs located under C:\ProgramData\VMMLogs\SCVMM.\report.txt (probably should have looked their first):

System.AggregateException: One or more errors occurred. —> Microsoft.VirtualManager.DB.CarmineSqlException: The SQL Server service account does not have permission to access Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS).
Ensure that the SQL Server service is running under a domain account or a computer account that has permission to access AD DS. For more information, see “Some applications and APIs require access to authorization information on account objects” in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=121054.

My local SQL instance was configured to run under a local user account, not a domain account. I re-checked the VMM installation requirements, and this requirement is not documented anywhere. Sure enough, once I reconfigured SQL to run as a domain account (also had to fix a SPN issue: http://softwarelounge.co.uk/archives/3191) and restarted the SQL service, the VMM service started successfully.

6 thoughts on “VMM 2012 R2 service crashes on start with exception code 0xe0434352

  1. We ran into the same issue here.
    Key to IDing the issue was in report.txt mentioned in the event viewer.

    The owner of the SQL DBs was an AD user that had been deleted.
    Changed ownership of the dbs to an existant login, and suddenly the service is happy again.
    (we did it on the reportserver db’s too, to be safe)

    • Thank you for this note! When our Sr Eng left 2 days ago, apparently his AD account was the owner of the VirtualManagerDB database, and changing the owner to ‘sa’ allowed the service to start right up.

    • After scouring the web for days and not finding the solution I saw this post and remembered the admin that setup VMM just left. Sure enough the owner field was blank. As soon as I changed to a service account the sun came out, birds started singing and I was doing my happy dance. Thanks for the post!

  2. From a Microsoft Thread:
    Based on my experience, we could perform below steps to check:

    1. Identify what account is running the SQL Server service, for the SQL server that

    the SCVMM database resides. In our case, a domain user.

    2. Open Active Directory Users and Computers.

    3. Open the Builtin OU.

    4. From there you should see a Security Group “Windows Authorization Access Group“

    5. Edit this group and add the SQL Server service account identified in step 1.

    6. Connect to the SVCMM again and check the result.

    If there is anything update, please feel free to let me know.

    I also had to ensure that I had a non-expiring password on my SQL Service account.

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