Configuring System Account Permissions

In addition to using the Distribution Servers dialog to configure the distribution server within Security Controls, if the following conditions apply you will need to provide the SYSTEM machine account with the proper sharing and security permissions:

  • If the distribution server resides on the same machine as the console, the local machine's SYSTEM account must have read and write access to the distribution server folder.
  • If an agent will be installed on the distribution server machine, the machine's SYSTEM account must have read access to the distribution server folder.
  • If you did not specify credentials for the console to use when authenticating to the distribution server AND you are using automatic synchronization, the Security Controls console machine's SYSTEM account must have read and write access to the distribution server folder.

In these three special cases it is the SYSTEM account that is used to access the distribution server and not the credentials supplied on the Distribution Servers dialog. If sharing and security permissions are not set, distribution server synchronization errors may occur and/or the local agent may fail to update.

Use Windows Explorer to set the account permissions by right-clicking the distribution server folder, selecting Properties, and the clicking the Sharing and the Security tabs. When setting permissions for the console machine's SYSTEM account (per bullet item #3), you will need to add the console machine's SYSTEM account name to the Group or user names list before you can set its permissions. Be sure you specify Computers as an object type when adding the name (see Example 2).

Example 1: Local SYSTEM Account

Example 2: Console Machine SYSTEM Account

When adding the console SYSTEM account name...

... verify that Computers is enabled on the Object Types dialog.