Error adding server to SharePoint farm

Question

When I try to add another server to my existing SharePoint 2010 farm through the configuration wizard, the wizard gets to task 3 of 9 then comes back with the message:

Configuration Failed.

The error I get to in the log says this:

09/19/2012 18:25:54 11 ERR Task configdb has failed with an unknown exception 09/19/2012 18:25:54 11 ERR Exception: System.InvalidOperationException: The password for the account PDI\svc_sp_app_u, as currently stored in SharePoint, is not the same as the current password for the account within Active Directory. To fix this with PowerShell, run Set-SPManagedAccount -UseExistingPassword. at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWindowsServiceInstance.Start() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWindowsServiceInstance.Provision(Boolean start) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.Join() at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.CreateOrConnectConfigDb() at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.Run() at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

So I did some research and followed the steps on this page: Unable to change SharePoint account password in SharePoint 2010

with no success. When I first tried to add this new server, SharePoint crashed on the existing WFE because some of my service accounts were expired. So I reset the passwords in AD. Used the Set-SPManagedAccount -UseExistingPassword command, and called Repair-SPManagedAccountDeployment to verify. Both servers have been restarted since. SharePoint seems to be running fine on my first WFE now, but I am still getting this error when trying to add this new server. Any ideas?

Answer 1

I finally found the answer, and it doesnt have anything to do with the error message I was getting. My farm account was configured in AD to only logon to my first WFE machine, and not the one I was trying to add. An accurate error message would have been nice! Thanks Microsoft!