Unable to run Designer unless Local Admin on client PC

StefL · Post by **StefL** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 7:25 am

We're running version 7.5 with the server on a unix box.
My client machine is a Win 2000 SP3 (I know it says SP4 in the install guide but that hasn't proven a problem so far).

My problem is this: I can't start DS Designer unless I'm local admin on the client box - Director and Manager are OK though. That was fine for a month or so until the corporate script that cleans local admin rights away on a daily basis found me this weekend. Having the support guys reassigning me local admin rights every morning is not an acceptable long-term solution so I need to figure out what is wrong.
What happens is this:
When I start Designer I get the logon window, and I can tell it connects with the server because when I've entered my password it allows me to browse the dropdown list of projects on the server. Then when I press OK and the tool is to start it just thinks for a while and then I get a standard Windows error message saying something like 'This application has encountered an error and will exit. An error log is being created'. All I can tell from the dr Watson log is that the error is an access violation error (surprise!).

I've tried reinstalling from the CD, and I've also tried logging onto a colleagues box where Designer DID work for me despite not being local admin.
So apparently something is fishy EITHER with my installation CD OR with the general configuration of my client machine. I'd be most thankful for any advice...

Sainath.Srinivasan · Post by **Sainath.Srinivasan** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 7:30 am

Dr Watson is famous to appear when your memory is running low. Try to stop other applications and start Designer alone and see what happens.

StefL · Post by **StefL** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 7:32 am

Thanks for the prompt reply Sainath!

Alas it's not a memory thing however; the problem appears after I've had my local admin rights revoked, and disappears when they're reassigned to me.

Sainath.Srinivasan · Post by **Sainath.Srinivasan** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 7:51 am

Did you check whether you have any firewall restriction on running director.exe

StefL · Post by **StefL** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 9:29 am

There shouldn't be any restrictions of that kind that I know of. And since Administrator, Manager and Director all work fine and it's just Designer that's not working it seems unlikely.

And as I mentioned I've been working with this project since January and it's worked just fine. The only difference the past few days is that some system script that revokes local admin rights given to people is run every night. Thus, when I get in in the morning I get the error, and after having the support guys awarding me local admin on my desktop it works for the day.
However it doesn't seem to be the same on another desktop that a colleague uses since I could start Designer on that box without being local admin...

Sainath.Srinivasan · Post by **Sainath.Srinivasan** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 9:56 am

Do they have access to the DataStage directory on their client PC? Do you have the same?

shawn_ramsey · Post by **shawn_ramsey** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 10:01 am

We have seen the same issue here. I reported it to Ascential but I was never able to get a resolution from them. I even had them as Power user and it would not work. I finally gave up on working it out since we did not have the time.

Good luck and let me know if you resolve this one since I would like to bump the rights

StefL · Post by **StefL** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:18 am

Just a note about how this issue was finally resolved.
We did a full re-install (OS and all other software) of my client machine, and now it works fine. I have no more detailed information about what might have been wrong and letting the OS install run during the lunch hour probably was the most time effective solution after all