AppVeyor Host Agent -- Error 26403. Failed to add user to group

[marcingminski]

When installing the host agent on Windows Server 2019 I get the following:

 PS C:\Users\localadmin> Connect-AppVeyorToComputer -AppVeyorUrl https://ci.appveyor.com -ApiToken xxx

Checking AppVeyor API access...
Configuring 'Process' build cloud in AppVeyor
AppVeyor cloud 'appveyor' already exists.
Reading Host Agent authorization token from the existing cloud.

Ensure build worker image is available for AppVeyor projects
AppVeyor build worker image 'Windows' already exists.

Installing AppVeyor Host Agent
OS: Windows
Downloading appveyor-host-agent.msi...
Installing Host Agent...
Something went wrong and Host Agent was not installed
Connect-AppVeyorToComputer : Error installing Host Agent
At line:1 char:1
+ Connect-AppVeyorToComputer -AppVeyorUrl https://ci.appveyor.com -ApiT ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Write-Error], WriteErrorException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WriteErrorException,Connect-AppVeyorToComputer 

and in the Windows EventLog I can see:

Product: AppVeyor Host Agent -- Error 26403. Failed to add user to group.  (-2147023509   appveyor   Administrators   )

I am running it under a local admin account.

[FeodorFitsner]

Make sure "appveyor" user does not exist and try again.

[marcingminski]

Hi, I have checked before and no, it did not exist and still does not exist but the error remains:

[FeodorFitsner]

Is it localized version of Windows? Is the server part of domain? Where is it hosted?

It also could be an issue if the name of that server is appveyor (most probably).

You can try installing Host Agent manually with different user account and log enabled:

Download Host Agent from here and run:

msiexec /i appveyor-host-agent-7.0.3134-win-x64.msi /quiet /qn /norestart /log %USERPROFILE%\appveyor-install.log APPVEYOR_USER_NAME={username} APPVEYOR_USER_PASSWORD={password}

[marcingminski]

Hi, renaming the server solved the issue and the agent installed successfully. Thank you for your help. Perhaps a future feature would be to have a check in the PS script to validate machine name?

[marcingminski]

Looks like every time I restart the VM, the service fails to start due to logon failure. I am having to change the password with every restart. The account is set too never expire, and user cannot change the password:

Any idea?

[FeodorFitsner]

I've googled this: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/lync/en-US/6173b2dd-6f77-47fe-9453-7e0701ae1d5e/windows-services-failing-logon-failure-after-reboot-typing-same-password-allows-the-service-to?forum=windowsserver2008r2general

[marcingminski]

Thank you but that's not it. I noticed that the appveyor account gets locked out and I can't even login via RDP. I wonder if this is somehow caused by renaming the server to solve the previous problem. The event log isnt much helpful. I will rebuild the VM from scratch using a different name. Thank you for your time.

[FeodorFitsner]

Try using a different account - it's doesn't make any difference what account is used for Host Agent service. It just needs to have enough permissions.

[marcingminski]

Hi, didn't work, the new user is getting locked out too and the service does not start. I have rebuilt the VM with a correct name to start with and everything is OK now. Thank you kindly for your help and guidance.