Sharepoint Profile Replication Engine permissions warnings

Question

I'm trying to use Microsoft's User Profile Service Replication Engine that packs with the Sharepoint 2010 Administration Tools download and I'm running into problems.

Specifically I am endeavouring to use the Start-SPProfileServiceIncrementalReplication commandlet with something like this:

Start-SPProfileServiceIncrementalReplication -Source http://sourceserver:1234 -Target http://targetserver/my -DoSocialReplication -Credential $credentialvar

I have configured $credentialvar to use the credentials of a user who has Local Administrator and Farm Administrator rights on both source and target server.

The response I get to this is "Argument Credential does not have enough permissions to access web service."

The problem I am having is that it isn't telling me, and I don't know where to find out, what web service is causing the permission error, or indeed what server I should be looking on. Does the Replication Engine log this information anywhere? Will the SharePoint logs tell me? I can include a -EnableInstrumentation parameter but I can't work out what that actually does.

I feel like I'm having to perform fine needlepoint blindfold, in the dark, with boxing gloves on. It is a touch frustrating. Can anyone recommend how I can find what is causing the problem so I can progress forward to the next inexplicable error message.

Edited to add: Tracing the HTTP request reveals that my first POST request to http://targetserver/_vti_bin/userprofilechangeservice.asmx is returning the following message: soap:Server Server was unable to process request. ---> Access Denied: Only administrators can call GetChanges

I am using credentials as a local machine administrator and a farm administrator for both SharePoint sites, so I'm not sure how much more administrator I can be.

Answer 1

I had spent a few hours trying to get the initial full sync working but it kept failing with an access denied trying to call http://my.sites/_vti_bin/userprofilechangeservice.asmx?op=GetChanges (I gave the account running the command every permission I could think of, full control on the service app, farm admin, local admin etc etc). Simply switching to central admin of the source and destination environment sorted the problem. Who knows how long I would have spent working that out if it wasn't for this post.

Thanks for your help!