Veeam Reporter Could not create Windows user token from the credentials specified in the config file. Error from the operating system ‘Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password.

Today, I had a call from one of my enterprise customers complaining that he cannot log into Veeam reporter WebAccess Portal. The main error he was getting is:

“Parser Error Message: Could not create Windows user token from the credentials specified in the config file. Error from the operating system ‘Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password.”

Actually the full exact error message is below:

==================Error Start===================

Server Error in ‘/VeeamWebAccess’ Application.
——————————————————————————–

Configuration Error
Description: An error occurred during the processing of a configuration file required to service this request. Please review the specific error details below and modify your configuration file appropriately.

Parser Error Message: Could not create Windows user token from the credentials specified in the config file. Error from the operating system ‘Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password.
‘Source Error:
Line 117: </assemblies>
Line 118: </compilation>
Line 119: <identity configProtectionProvider=”DataProtectionConfigurationProvider”>
Line 120: <EncryptedData>
Line 121: <CipherData>
Source File: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\VeeamReporterEnterprise\WebAccess\web.config Line: 119
——————————————————————————–
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.3603; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.3082

==================Error End===================

After fuzzing out with the product & with Active directory for some time, as the error point out to some authentication problem I have to came to a conclusion its not an active directory authentication problem. Then after searching Veeam forums I hit the following post which show the resolution for the problem: http://www.veeam.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2177

All you have to do basically is to open the web.config file normally installed in

C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\VeeamReporterEnterprise\WebAccess\web.config

After that look for & remove the following lines of code:

<identity configProtectionProvider="DataProtectionConfigurationProvider">
<EncryptedData>
<CipherData>
<CipherValue>AQAAANCMnd8BFdERjHoAwE/Cl+sBAAAAYDN1hKNGzk62WgeD/ad+BAQAAAACAAAAAAADZgAAqAAAABAAAACdhnJWECkPZbtH9vHWf6O/AAAAAASAAACgAAAAEAAAADvEnGe/xStwHbIUjRnsuCigAAAAfi4w5TIIldqc1V3K0gOpyNkKQKs6qvANRtISHTfXA6fP5t6Y+EXlnXEUDqiQjPsH8CTnckOZe9Hfz+ZOi5OLjw+tKVOZ0zV2IHCtnkR/Z7kf8xhjylNkqWLcL8QIpx3BUUQHe74YyLx56LhSPEaL6aFKGIstXoYYPKEyxDjkOSoZoLpMxshO50swjijHe2BnRDfEe293+UpAZmGctyxJTxQAAACLlTtJ4HOqX6lmRzLZOgBI8JF3Aw==</CipherValue>
</CipherData>
</EncryptedData>
</identity>

Right after I have deleted the above lines of the web.config, Veeam Reporter got back operational. I am not sure why these lines are causing this problem, though it seems a bug with the software. I thought I will share it with you all in case some one hit the same problem in the future. If someone of Veeam kind enough to explain the reason behind this problem in the comments, it will be great.