SQL Server 2008 + service accounts with passwords containing spaces

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tigercorp

668 posts

Ultimate Geek

#99497 20-Mar-2012 13:57

I'm at the start of a application migration from Win2003/SQL2005 to Win2008/SQL2008 and trying to install SQL Server 2008 R2 with the SQL Agent and database engine using a domain account that has a space in the password.

And its just not working. I keep getting the generic "The credentials you provided for the SQL Server Agent service are invalid. To continue, provide a valid account and password for the SQL Server Agent service".

I can't find any documentation about password requirements for service accounts in SQL2008 and this account/password is working fine in the current production SQL2005.
So I'm wanting to confirm if this is the cause of the problem or not.

There's no problems with authentication against the domain - using another account that doesn't contain a space works fine.

Anyone seen this before?

And lets not start on WHY we were given a password containing a space in the first place...

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#597861 20-Mar-2012 19:05

have you got the password complexity turned on?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms161959.aspx

tigercorp

668 posts

Ultimate Geek

#597879 20-Mar-2012 20:00

nathan: have you got the password complexity turned on?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms161959.aspx

Thanks for the suggestion.
I'm not sure what happened but it 'just started working' about an hour ago.

The sysadmins swear they haven't done anything and now I'm starting to wonder if I entered it incorrectly a dozen times including once with the on screen keyboard. Although I manage to successfully log onto the 6 servers numerous times a day with that account without any problem...

This one goes in the forgetaboutit basket :)