Why does the Timer Service stop due to incorrect login?

Question

My SharePoint 2010 Timer Service (Administrative Tools -> Services) keeps stopping. The service is set to start up automatically, and the service account is SPFarm. When attempting a manual start, i get "Error 1069: The service did not start due to a logon failure".

If I select Properties -> Log On and manually enter the password for the account, manual service start will succeed and the service runs for about 24 hours. After this, it stops and on restart gives the error message above. From this, I might guess that the service has incorrect credentials stored somewhere?

There are numerous other posts on the Net about these problems, but I have attempted the common suggestions I found (service user is dbcreator and securityadmin, db_owner for configuration databases, and also member of local Administrators group). No luck on that front.

Answer 1

It turned out that my initial theory was correct. By going into Central Administration -> Security -> Configure Managed Accounts and editing the SPFarm account, I could set the stored password to its correct value. Check "Change password now", "Use existing password" and enter the account password. This will update the stored password value, and the Timer service will start working.

No idea how the service got the wrong password in the first place, but this solves the issue.

Answer 2

If the above solution doesn't work, check your Group Policy. To get the service to start I had to retype the password in the Log On tab in the Service Properties. When I'd done this I was given a message saying that the account had been granted Log On Locally rights. I could then start the service, but the problem would recur some hours later. So I got onto our network guys and they gave the relevant accounts Log On Locally rights in our Group Policy, updated the Group Policy on the server and bingo, no more stopped services. To test it, I retyped the password in the Log On tab in the Service Properties. This time I wasn't given any message. Therefore, the account already had Log On Locally rights.

Hopefully this will save someone some heartache!