Domain User Account Not Found or Invalid Password Problem

While I was trying to setup MOSS 2007 on a single server box I had this problem of Invalid Password or User Account not found problem when I try to start the Windows SharePoint Search Service.

I have a user account something like: aifsmoss\searchspccontentaccessusr which I was trying to use while setting up the WSS search service using the Central Administration. Even though I give the correct user name and password it shoots back saying invalid password or account. After a couple of days of troubleshooting I was able to figure out that in the Active Directory, in the user account properties the pre-windows 2000 account name is truncated and it looks something like: aifsmoss\searchspccontentacce

so basically the length of the user account name is the problem and it is truncated. I created another user account and it worked just fine.

Below is the screen shot of the user account properties.

Chart: Domain User Accounts Required before Installing MOSS 2007

Below is a chart of the user accounts required before installing MOSS 2007 / Sharepoint 2007 when installed in a server farm. This table is a must for every sharepoint developer/adminsitrator. Thanks to Clayton for his blog post who put the ever confusing user accounts in a neat descriptive table.

Account	Purpose		Used By		Requirements
Setup User	User account that is used to run setup on each server.		Person installing		Member of the administrator group on each Web front-end (WFE) server and application server computer in the farm. Member of the following SQL Server groups with SQL Security administrator and database creator rights on SQL servers.
SQL Server Service	This is the security context used By Central Administration for creating databases and other SQL configurations.		MSSQLSERVER, SQLSERVERAGENT		Member of the administrators group on each server on which setup runs, administrators group on each SQL Server computer, database system administrator, and member of the SQL security administrator and database creator SQL Server groups.
Server Farm	This account is also referred to as the database access account.		Central administration site application pool identity		Member of administrators group on each WFE server and application server computer in the farm with SQL security administrator and database creator rights on SQL Servers. Database Owner (DBO) for all databases and additional permissions on WFE server and application server computers are automatically configured for this account when SharePoint is installed.
SSP App Pool			SSP App Pool Identity		No configuration is necessary. The following permissions are automatically configured for this account when SharePoint is installed: DBO for the Share Service Provider (SSP) content database, read/write permissions for the SSP content database, read/write permissions for content databases for Web applications that are associated with the SSP, read permissions for the configuration database, read permissions for the central administration content database, and additional permissions on WFE server and application server computers
SSP Service Account	Used to run timer jobs and for interserver communications.		SSP Timer service; SSP Web services		Same as SSP App Pool Account
Windows SharePoint Services Search	Used as the service account for the Windows SharePoint Services Search service. There is only one instance of this service, and it is used by all SSPs.		Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search service		Must be a domain account, but must not be a member of the farm administrators group. Permissions automatically configured for this account when SharePoint is installed include the following: read/write permissions for content databases for Web applications, read permissions for the configuration database, and read/write permissions for the Windows SharePoint Services Search database
Search Default Content Access Account	The default account used by a specific SSP to crawl content. It is used when an account is not specified for a content source.		Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search service		Must be a domain account, but must not be a member of the farm administrators group. It requires read access to external or secure content sources that you want to crawl using this account. Additional permissions for this account are automatically configured when SharePoint is installed.
Search Specific Content Access Account	This is an optional account that is configured to replace the default content access account to crawl a specific content source.		Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search service		Read access to external or secure content sources that this account is configured to access.
User Profile and Properties Content Access Account	Account used to connect to a directory service, such as Active Directory, a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory, Business Data Catalog (BDC) application, or other directory source and used to import profile data from a directory service. Note: If no account is specified, the Search Default Content Access account is used. If the Search Default Content Access account does not have read access to the directory or directories that you want to import data from, you will need to specify a different account. You should plan for one account per directory connection.		Profile Import		Read access to the directory service. For an Active Directory service connection that enables Server Side Incremental, the account must have the Replicate Changes permissions for Active Directory directory services provided by Windows 2000 Server. This permission is not required for Windows 2003 Active Directory. Manage user profiles right. View rights on entities used in Business Data Catalog import connections.
Excel Services Unattended Service Account	Excel Calculation Services uses this account to connect to data sources that require user name and password strings for authentication. The SSP App Pool account is used if none is specified. For security, plan to use a low-privileged account that does not have the database privileges of the SSP App Pool Account.		Excel Services Service		Read/write access to the Excel data sources.
App Pool Identity	Used to access content databases associated with the Web application. Plan one for each application pool.		Web Applications		No configuration is necessary. SQL Server privileges that are automatically assigned to this account are member of Database Owners Group for content databases associated with the Web application, read/write access to the associated SSP database only, and read permission for the configuration database. Additional privileges for this account on WFE servers and application servers are automatically configured by SharePoint

Below are the sample accounts in a more concise way for a quick reference in the following format:

Account username – password – Role – Rights/Permissions

1. mosssetupusr – Pass12! – Moss Setup user – Member of: Administrator – SQL: dbcreator and security-admin
2. sqlserversrvc – Pass12! – User to create db’s and sql configs – Member of: Administrator – SQL: dbcreator and security-admin
3. caapooldbaccessusr – Pass12! – caa app pool usr acct and to access db – Member of: Administrator – SQL: dbcreator and security-admin
4. sspappool@AIFSMOSS.local – Pass12! = SSP App Pool Identity – User rights and entitlements assigned automatically
5. sspserviceusr – Pass12! – SSP Timer/Web Services – User rights and entitlements assigned automatically
6. WssSearchSrvcUsr – Pass12! – used for wss search – User rights and entitlements assigned automatically
7. searchcontentaccessusr – Pass12! – default user for search content access – User rights assigned automatically
8. searchspccontentaccessusr – Pass12! – user for search specific content access – read access to external content source
9. userprofilesaccessusr – Pass12! – usr who access the AD and user properties – read rights to AD
10. excelservicesusr – Pass12! – usr to access excel content soruces – read rights to excel content sources