IBM Support

Troubleshooting ALBD startup failures on Microsoft Windows

Question & Answer


Question

Is there a collection of knowledge which attempts to address some possible causes and solutions related to starting the IBM® Rational® ClearCase® Atria Location Broker Daemon (ALBD) server service on Microsoft® Windows®?

Answer

The troubleshooting steps below for each error are the culmination of different approaches that have been taken to solve the particular problem. The error is generic but the solutions are specific to the environment from which the problem occurs, therefore the steps below span multiple environments.

The steps are NOT numbered by priority or order because any solution or combination of solutions for the given error may need to be applied to solve your issue depending on your Windows configuration.



When the ALBD service fails to start, or terminates immediately after startup it may become necessary to assist support in troubleshooting your issue. If the ALBD appears to start successfully on bootup (meaning that you are not getting the "one or more services did not start successfully" message) but is stopped by the time you log in, check the application event log for ClearCase errors. In most cases of this nature, you can follow the steps in the "Error 1067" section below.

In order to determine the cause of the failure, the first place to look is the System Event Viewer log. In many cases, the Service Control Manager will report an error starting the ALBD. The possible error messages are:

Error 0005Error 109Error 1053Error 1057Error 1058
Error 1067Error 1068Error 1069Error 1070Error 2189


Error 1069

***********************************************************************************
C:\>net helpmsg 1069

The service did not start due to a logon failure
.
***********************************************************************************

When this error occurs, one or more of the following issues is blocking the ALBD from starting.

  1. ALBD account password changed.

  2. The SID for the ALBD account is no longer valid - it may have been deleted and re-created.

  3. ALBD account name is incorrect. This is most likely to occur in the middle of a domain migration, once the old domain is decommissioned.

  4. ALBD account locked. (This may occur as a result of #1 above or through too many failed attempts to login using the incorrect password.)

  5. ALBD account does not have one of the following rights on the host:

    • Log on Locally

    • Log on as a Service
      Refer to the Windows help under the topic of "User rights assignment" for further information.


      Note: In an Microsoft Active Directory® domain, a group policy may override the local policy setting. If to, the "Local Security Policy" control panel will show different results for "local" and "effective" policies after restarting the computer.

Follow the below steps to resolve the issue:

  • Attempt to log in interactively as the ALBD on the failing host. Take note of any errors that may occur for the next step.

  • Contact your Windows Domain administrators to:

    • Determine if there were any changes to the clearcase_albd account or its password

    • Insure that the clearcase_albd account password is set to never expire.

    • Reset the password or account lockout status of the clearcase_albd account.

    • Verify the status of the "logon as a service" and "Log on Locally" rights on the domain.


      The domain qualified ALBD account (DOMAIN\clearcase_albd) should be displayed in the list of users who have the Log on as a service rights.


      Both the Local Policy Setting and Effective Policy Settings boxes should be checked. If the Effective Policy Setting box is not checked for the clearcase_albd account, then the account rights assignment was not set correctly on the Domain Controller.

  • If the password or the account itself has been changed, the account and/or password can be changed using one of 2 mechanisms:

    1. Use the "services" or "computer management" control panel applications to get the properties of the Atria Location Broker service. When the "Properties" appears, switch to the "Logon" tab.

      You will see a dialog box similar to this:



      Note: The account name above is for illustrative purposes only.

      Update the information in the dialog box. If a dialog appears similar to this:

      |

      consult your Microsoft Windows domain administrators to see if there are user rights policies that block the ALBD account. Otherwise you may find that issue will repeat on the next system startup.

    2. Use the windows "sc" command to check the User account, and possibly change it or the password. To set the account or password information, you must be logged in with local administrator rights, and if User Account Control (UAC) is enabled, you must be in a Administrator mode command prompt.


      Note: This method, unlike the GUI method above, does not check the user rights and grant any needed ones.


      The commands to do so are:

      • To see the account information for the Atria Location Broker, enter:

        sc qc albd


        The account name is displayed in this section of the output:

                SERVICE_START_NAME : .\clearcase-albd

      • To change the account name used for the ALBD , run:
        sc config albd obj= {username}

      • to change the password for the ALBD account, run:
        sc config password= {new password}

  • If account name, password and access rights are correct, then the Windows Domain administrators may have to consult the security event logs on the domain controllers to get more information about the failures and resolve the logon issue.


Error 1067

***********************************************************************************
C:\>net helpmsg 1067

The process terminated unexpectedly.

***********************************************************************************

Check the application event log for errors from the ALBD. If there is a recent error from the ALBD reading Error: albd_server must run in the ClearCase group, one of the following issues has caused the ALBD server to refuse to start:

  1. ALBD is being started while disconnected from the network. This is not a supported configuration as ClearCase is a network-based SCM application.

  2. ALBD is starting before the network has fully initialized. In this event, the albd_server process cannot access a Windows domain controller to authenticate itself on the network. When this occurs, the albd_server process will log the above error and exit. In some cases it may "hang" instead of properly exiting. If this problem happens often enough try the following workarounds to alleviate the symptoms:

    • Add the "Browser" and "Netlogon" services to the list of dependencies for the ALBD service. Please note that the dependency list for the ALBD service may depend on the ClearCase version and host operating system. While this can be done by directly editing the Windows registry, the safest way is to use the command line "service control" (sc.exe) tool:

      1. Run the following command:
        sc qc albd

      2. Observe output similar to the following:
        SERVICE_NAME: albd
        TYPE               : 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
        START_TYPE         : 2   AUTO_START
        ERROR_CONTROL      : 1   NORMAL
        BINARY_PATH_NAME   : C:/Program Files (x86)/IBM/RationalSDLC/ClearCase/bin/albd_server.exe
        LOAD_ORDER_GROUP   :
        TAG                : 0
        DISPLAY_NAME       : Atria Location Broker
        DEPENDENCIES       : RpcSs
                          : TcpIp
                          : PolicyAgent
                          : seclogon
        SERVICE_START_NAME : .\clearcase-albd

      3. Add the Browser and Netlogon services to the dependency list by running a command similar to the following:
        sc config albd depend= RpcSs/TcpIp/PolicyAgent/seclogon/Browser/netlogon

        This adds the two additional services to the ALBD dependency list.

    • Disable the "Fast Logon" optimization on the problem host. This Microsoft Windows optimization is described in Microsoft Knowledgebase article 305293. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305293) That note includes instructions for disabling this feature through local security and/or Domain group policies.

    • Change the ALBD service startup type to "delayed start." More information on the full impact of this option is located at:

      http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2008/02/02/ws2008-startup-processes-and-delayed-automatic-start.aspx


      To set the ALBD service to delayed start, run the following command:

      sc config albd start= delayed-auto

  3. The ALBD account is not a member of the ClearCase Server Process Group or this information is incorrect. Obtain the name of the ClearCase Administrator's Group that is reported in the General Information section of the ClearCase Doctor (Start > Run type ccdoctor).

    Example:


    Note: It is not normally possible to run the ALBD service as a non-privileged user, this is a non-supported configuration as ClearCase servers would be prevented from correctly executing administrative tasks.

    If the "ClearCase Administrators Group" above is incorrect, the fastest way to correct it is to modify the group name in the Windows registry:

    Disclaimer

    This solution contains information about modifying the system registry. Before making any modifications to the Microsoft Registry Editor, it is strongly recommended that you make a backup of the existing registry. For more information describing how to back up the registry, refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 256986


    32-bit Windows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Atria\ClearCase\CurrentVersion\
    ClearCaseGroupName

    64-bit Windows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Atria\ClearCase\
    CurrentVersion\ClearCaseGroupName

  4. The Windows domain name can not be "clearcase"

  5. The local system may not have a local group with the same name as the ClearCase Administrators group


Other issues that could cause the albd process to fail at startup include, but are not limited to:
  1. Confirm that the ClearCase bin and Rational common directories are near the beginning of the System path, at least ahead of any remote/network paths.
  2. If ClearCase has recently been reinstalled, and the system event log includes a line reading:
    Can't read configuration file <path> No such file or directory.

    ClearCase may have been uninstalled, and then reinstalled to a different location. IBM Installation manager preserves old settings in a "Rational.preserve" directory on uninstall/upgrade. These settings, which include the ClearCase installation directory, are restored on reinstall. The Rational.preserve directory is typically located at "C:\ProgramData\IBM\Rational.preserve."

    Check the paths in the following registry values.

    32-bit Windows:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Atria\ClearCase\CurrentVersion\HostData
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Atria\ClearCase\CurrentVersion\ProductHome


    64-bit Windows:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Atria\ClearCase\CurrentVersion\HostData
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Atria\ClearCase\CurrentVersion\ProductHome


    These registry values may need to be modified to reflect the current install location. Alternatively:
    • Uninstall ClearCase
    • Remove the Rational.Preserve directory listed above.
    • Reinstall ClearCase
  3. There may be a problem with permissions on one or more directories:

    The ALBD user must have at least these permissions on these directories.
      • read/execute permissions to the "...\Rational" or "...\RationalSDLC" product install directory and all subdirectories.
      • read/execute permissions on the WINDOWS, WINNT or WINNT35 and subdirectories
      • Full control permissions on the ...\ClearCase\var directory and all subdirectories. To set these permissions in a command prompt, run the following command:

        cacls /e /t /g {ClearCase Administrators Group}:F
      • Full control permissions in the directories pointed to by the following environment variables:
        • System TEMP and TMP.

          Note: The TMP environment variable may not be set.
        • Albd user account TEMP and TMP.

          Note: These generally will not exist unless someone has logged in interactively on the ALBD host, thus creating a local user profile for the ALBD user.
      • Read/Execute/Traverse rights on the root of the "System" drive (usually C:). To verify whether the ALBD account has the rights needed:
        • Give the ALBD user full control of the root directory of the C: drive (or where ClearCase is installed). Do not replace on subdirectories, as this could have unintended side effects, including overwriting VOB storage directory permissions if those are stored on the C: drive. The simplest command to do this is:

          cacls C:\ /e /g {clearcase-albd-account}:F
        • If the ALBD service then successfully starts, stop it and reduce the permissions back to "read" and restart the albd. In most cases, the command would be:

          cacls C:\ /e /g {clearcase-albd-account}:R

    • If the failure to start occurs after an upgrade of ClearCase, information or filesystem permissions left over from a previous version may be interfering with the newer version. This is particularly true if the upgrade process included any domain migrations or account changes. Follow these steps:
      1. Stop ClearCase completely through Start > Setting > Control Panel > ClearCase > Services Startup tab or stop ClearCase from the command line (review technote 1134178).
      2. CD to your installation directory. This is normally one of the following:
        • "C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase"
        • "C:\Program Files\IBM\RationalSDLC\ClearCase"
        • "C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\RationalSDLC\ClearCase"
      3. Copy the "var" directory and put it on your desktop.
      4. Go back to the "...\ClearCase\var" directory and remove all possible directories that you can.
      5. Reinstall ClearCase to the original installation directory
      6. Restart Windows
      7. Login as the same user that did the install (This is critical)
      8. If the ALBD successfully started:
        1. Stop ClearCase again
        2. make a second backup copy of the var directory
        3. use the "xcopy" command to copy all files backed up in step C above into the new ...\var directory. The command line will read as follows:

          xcopy /s /v /e /y "%userprofile%\desktop\var\*" "{ClearCase Install directory}\var"
        4. Ensure that the ClearCase Administrators group has full control rights to all files in this directory using the command line in the section on permissions needed above.
        5. Restart ClearCase
        6. Verify that all the ClearCase services are running from the Services Startup tab in the ClearCase control panel.

    • Normally the clearcase_albd user does not need local admin rights, but if everything else has been checked, try adding the domain qualified clearcase_albd user to the local administrator's group.

  4. Check if the system's hard drive is low on disk space or if the virtual memory is empty.

  5. The system is a registry server, and the <ClearCase installation>\var\rgy directory is missing.

  6. If this issue occurs on Microsoft Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2, it may be due to a known Microsoft issue. Refer to technote1446516 Domain group names do not return in a creds output on Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 for further information.


Error 1068

***********************************************************************************
C:\>net helpmsg 1068

The dependency service or group failed to start.

***********************************************************************************

In a default configuration, this means that one of services the ALBD service depends on has failed to start or was disabled. To determine which issue is the case, open the Services Control Panel (Start > Run type services.msc) and locate those services and determine their status.

If the ALBD has been configured to depend on other services, the services in question will be listed in the Dependencies tab of the ALBD service properties.




In Windows 7 and Windows 2008 and later:




Some additional checks for this error:

  1. Is the machine to which you are starting the ALBD still a member of the domain in which the ALBD resides? If unsure, reinstall ClearCase.

  2. Check the DNS database to see if there are any duplicate entries of the machine in question.

  3. Check to make sure the clearcase_albd user is a member of the 'clearcase' group.


Error 1053

***********************************************************************************
C:\>net helpmsg 1053
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.
***********************************************************************************

When ClearCase attempts to start, a pop-up error of 1053 is displayed.


The ALBD service appears not to be able to start whereas the lock manager and the MVFS may start with no problems. The message indicates that the ALBD attempted to start but did not complete.


Review the steps under Error 1067 above for possible workarounds.


Note:
A known workaround to resolve this issue is to give the clearcase_albd account local admin rights on the host.



Error 1058

***********************************************************************************
C:\>net helpmsg 1058
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

***********************************************************************************

When ClearCase attempts to start, a pop-up error of 1058 is displayed.


The ALBD service appears not to be able to start whereas the lock manager and the MVFS may start with no problems.


The problem occurs even before the ALBD is able to login, so the usual 1067 or 1069 errors don't show up.


Review the steps under Error 1067 above for possible workarounds.



Error 1057

***********************************************************************************
C:\>net helpmsg 1057
The account name is invalid or does not exist, or the password is invalid for the account name specified.

***********************************************************************************

Windows Services that are configured to run as a particular user must use a valid Windows user account name and password. If the account does not exist, an invalid password is entered or the account has somehow become corrupted, the service will not start.

Review the steps under Error 1069 above for possible resolutions.



Error 1070

***********************************************************************************
C:\>net helpmsg 1070

After starting, the service hung in a start-pending state.

***********************************************************************************

While this is possible, it has not yet been observed at a customer site. The most likely cause of this issue is that the ALBD service "froze" while attempting to determine if it is running as a ClearCase-privileged account.

Review the steps under Error 1067 above for possible workarounds. The likely cause is either issue #1 or #2.



Error 109

***********************************************************************************
C:\>net helpmsg 109
The pipe has been ended.

***********************************************************************************

In some cases the creation of a local ALBD account and clearcase group was the cause of this error. Prior to this error a domain ALBD account and group was being used. Once the ALBD account was configured to use a domain account again, the error went away.

Review the steps under Error 1067 above for possible resolutions.



Error 2189

***********************************************************************************
C:\>net helpmsg 2189



The service could not be controlled in its present state.
***********************************************************************************

The service is not currently accepting requests. If the service is starting, it cannot process requests until it is fully started.

Try the operation again in a minute or two.

If this problem persists, the service may be stuck in a partially running state.

Restarting the server seems to be the only way to resolve the problem.

Error 0005

***********************************************************************************
C:\>net helpmsg 0005



Access is denied.
***********************************************************************************

The ALBD user (clearcase_albd by default) must have access to the directory in which the ClearCase executables are stored. If the ClearCase service account does not have full access to the directory then the Atria Location Broker Service itself will not be started.

This problem can happen during domain migrations if the ALBD account and/or ClearCase group were created anew and not by the migration tool.

Note: With Rational ClearCase LT® this account will be a Local System account; refer to technote 1164412 for more details.



The ClearCase executables are stored in:

  • C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\bin (ClearCase 7.0 and earlier).
  • C:\Program Files\IBM\RationalSDLC\ClearCase\bin (ClearCase 7.1 and later on 32-bit Windows)
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\RationalSDLC\ClearCase\bin (ClearCase 7.1 and later on 64-bit Windows)

Note: Since FAT file systems do not implement security measures, this problem only applies to Rational ClearCase installations which reside on NTFS file systems.

Since the issue is most likely a directory security issue, Review step 7 under Error 1067 above for resolution options.



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Document Information

Modified date:
29 September 2018

UID

swg21177467