TechTips - How to Fix Repeated Errors Due to Long SharePoint 2007 Service Account Names

I ran into an error that was driving me crazy this weekend with MOSS SharePoint 2007, I kept getting an error saying that the username and password I was entering was not valid. I knew the username and password were correct and I checked to be sure several times and made sure and typed each character of the password one at a time. Still got the error, and then I checked my Active Directory and found the problem, my username was too long for AD.

Here is what was going on with my account name and why it was too long. When I created the name in AD I am supposed to follow a certain format that is standard for all service accounts but say you don't have a convention and the account name ends up more than 21 characters like this

TestMOSSAdmin01111111111 (just an example I hope you don't use a service account name like this)

Or any other naming convention that ends up longer than 21 characters. You will find that when you create this name in Active Directory it shows in the Full Name and User Logon Name as TestMOSSAdmin01111111111 but when you look at the User logon name (pre-Windows 2000) you will see it takes off the Extra 1's and only has TestMOSSAdmin0111111 as the user name.

This is where the problem is, for whatever Reason MOSS SharePoint 2007 doesn't like this. When you go to create a new web application and it asks for your Service Account name you would think you need to enter the TestMOSSAdmin01111111111, but it will give you an error saying "The username and password entered are not valid".

I spent an hour changing my service account password, changing it again, logging into server after server proving to myself that the username and password worked. Then finally someone said "It wouldn't want that shorter name listed in AD under pre-Windows 2000 user name would it?"

So as a test I put in the pre-Windows 2000 user name TestMOSSAdmin0111111 and the password and everything worked just fine! I am not sure why MOSS SharePoint 2007 requires you to use the shorter username listed as (pre-Windows 2000) but it does.

I hope this guide helps you to avoid the issue I was getting with using the wrong username when trying to use my long username with MOSS SharePoint 2007. I have tested this on Windows 2003 with IIS 6 and Windows 2008 with IIS 7.5 and both have the issue. It is something funky with MOSS SharePoint 2007 that you should be aware of so you can avoid staring at a server saying I know I am typing this password right! Like I did, hope this helps.