Resolve SQL Server Login Issues While Setting Up System Center Configuration Manager 2016

System Center Configuration Manager

Quoting the Wiki Definition: "System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM, also known as ConfigMgr), formerly Systems Management Server (SMS) is a systems management software product developed by Microsoft for managing large groups of computers running Windows NT, Windows Embedded, OS X, Linux or UNIX, as well as Windows Phone, Symbian, iOS and Android mobile operating systems. Configuration Manager provides remote control, patch management, software distribution, operating system deployment, network access protection and hardware and software inventory".

The Problem

Once we have installed and set up the prerequisite required for configuring System Center Configuration Manager, we can run the SCCM installer file that will open up the System Center Configuration Manager Setup Wizard. Before starting the installation, it will run a Prerequisite Check. Unless all the checks have passed without any failures, the "Begin Install" button will not become visible. One of the issues that can come up during the prerequisite check is shown below.

“The logon account for the SQL Server service cannot be a local user account, NT SERVICE\<sql service name> or LOCAL SERVICE. You must configure the SQL Server service to use a valid domain account, NETWORK SERVICE, or LOCAL SYSTEM.”



Root Cause

This error usually happens when the service running the SQL Server service is a local user account. Let’s see the service user under which the MSSQLSERVER service is running from Services.msc.



It is running under the user NT Service\MSSQLServer. We will have to change it to a domain account/Local System/Network Service.

Resolution

In order to do that, spin up SQL Server Configuration Manager.



From SQL Server Services, right click the "SQL Server Instance" and select "Properties". This will show the current account under which it is running.



Change it to "This account" and set it as a "Domain Account".



We can either use the domain account or use the Local System Built-in account, as shown below.



After clicking on "Apply", let's head over to services.msc and refresh the page. We can see the service is running under the new domain user.



Now, if we rerun the prerequisite check, we can see that the failure error has been resolved.

Summary

Thus, we saw how to resolve the SQL Server login issue that occurs while running the Prerequisite Check of SCCM Installation.