1

I’m am at my wits end with this issue. I previously asked an issue because my WMI scans were failing from Spiceworks to all of my PCs. I have since migrated my Spiceworks server to a different server and am no longer having that problem, instead I find out I am unable to WMI into THAT server. I have gone through all of the Spiceworks check lists, I have spent hours googling and looking around on forums for any ideas. I cannot even begin to find the correct search string to even find my answer.

When I try to wbemtest into our server in question (and 2 others having the same problem, we have 22 total) I am told “authentication failed”. I am testing using a domain admin account which I can log into and open WMI with locally on that server. The firewall is completely disabled for testing. 2 of the 3 boxes are running Windows Server 2008 R2 x 64 (17 other servers are running this same version.) The 3rd is running Windows Server 2008 32 bit.

4 Spice ups
2

Is windows Firewall enabled on these devices you are trying to scan?

3

The Windows Firewall is disabled completely. Easier to test than using access rules.

4

create a new user that has never logged onto said server. give it domain admin rights. use that as your WMI user. Not sure why but it worked for me with the same problem.

5

Thanks for the idea. I had not considered that one yet. Unfortunately it still was unable to login.

6

If this isn’t relevant, ignore me. Could it have anything to do with it trying a local account, instead of a domain account? Perhaps both named “administrator”. Do you have the option to enter domain/username or username@domain.com?

7

I actually tried a few different accounts. With and without the appropriate domain option and none of them seemed to work. I even tried local admin accounts without any success.

8

Okay…maybe another long shot … In the dark guess.

Any chance the WMI service is running using a non-standard service or user account?

I’m sitting in a waiting room on my phone.

9

It was worth checking into. It is currently running as a local system account.

10

Have you tried repairing the WMI installation or giving you WMI user full permissions for WMI? you get to the permissions through computer manager. right click WMI control, gom to the security tab select ROOT then click the security button. add your WMI user then give it permissions.

11

I tried setting the permissions directly to the WMI tree for my admin account. It was part of a group that already had full permission. No luck.

I repaired my WMI. No luck.

12

Here is the fix I found.

Have to enable “Enable Distributed COM on this computer.” This can be found under:
Start → Administrative Tools → Component Services — This will open a new window
Expand Component Services - > Expand Computers → Right click “My Computer” and go to “Properties”
Choose the “Default Properties” tab and check the “Enable Distributed COM on this computer” box.
Reboot the computer.

I have no idea WHAT DISABLED MY DCOM! But it was disabled on all 3 servers, none of which have software in common that might explain this issue. Either way it is resolved and I never want to speak of it again.

I really hope I don’t get profile points for marking my own best answer. I just want this to be easily found if someone else runs into this god-awful pita issue.

2 Spice ups