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SQL Server Troubleshooting

Error 8198: Miscellaneous Agent: Job Failed. Unable to determine if owner ... has server access ...

Symptom:

A miscellaneous agent has failed, the full error message being:

The job failed. Unable to determine if the owner (DDDD\UUUU) of job JJJJ: distribution has server access (reason: Could not obtain information about Windows NT domain\user 'DDDD'. [SQLSTATE 42000] (Error 8198).

Cause:

The owner of the job (who is probably the user who created the job) does not have the necessary permissions.

This error can also be generated when it is SQL Server Agent (or the NT account within which it runs) does not have the necessary permissions to obtain information about the specified user account. This can happen when the SQL Server Agent account and the specified user account belong to different domains.

Possible Remedies:

Review whether the current owner of the job is appropriate. Then either:

  • Grant the owner the necessary permissions.
  • Change the owner to a more suitable account (for example use SQLServerAgent, assuming that account was created when SQL Server was installed or an account from within the same domain).

The owner of the job is shown under ‘Agent Properties’.

These notes are believed to be correct for SQL Server 7 and may apply to other versions as well.

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