Enterprise Vault File System Archiving services fails to authenticate: Fatal error during installation

Problem

Configuring Enterprise Vault File System Archiving (FSA) services with the FSA Cluster Configuration Wizard fails when attempting to authenticate to VERITAS Storage Foundation HA for Windows (SFW-HA)/VERITAS/VERITAS InfoScale Cluster Server for Windows (VCS).

Issue 1

When FSA agent is pushed on VCS cluster 6.x or 7.x, you may see the following error:
“Fatal error during installation.”

Issue 2

When using the Enterprise Vault File System Archiving (FSA) wizard to configure virtual file servers that are clustered on Storage Foundation for Windows HA 6.x (SFW-HA) / VERITAS 6.x/ VERITAS InfoScale (7.x) Cluster Server for Windows (VCS) as a target for FSA the wizard may fail when attempting to connect to the SFW-HA/VCS cluster.

It is required when running the FSA Cluster Configuration Wizard for the Enterprise Vault Administration Console (VAC) to connect to the cluster in order to modify the service group containing the clustered file system and add the FSA resource. The FSA resource as part of the service group then only runs when the service group is online on a particular cluster node.

Error Message

Error 1

When the FSA agent is pushed to a  VCS 6.x or 7.x cluster, you may see the following error:
“Fatal error during installation.” 

Error 2

To configure FSA services for high availability on a VCS cluster, install the VCS Authentication Service client binaries on the Enterprise Vault server.

Cause

Changes introduced in SFW-HA / VCS 6.x / VCS 7.x or higher cause the authentication failure. The dynamic link library components (vcsapi.dll) provided with EV version 9.x, 10.x and 11.x are not compatible with SFW-HA / VCS.

Workaround

Carry out the following steps on each Enterprise Vault server node to resolve both issues:

1. Copy the vcsapi32_mt.dll binary from SFW-HA/VCS cluster node location, %vcs_home%\bin, and rename it as vcsapi.dll.
2. Take a backup copy of the following file: vcsapi.dll (from directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\Utilities\FSA Cluster\VCS\5.0\x86)
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault is presumed to be the installation directory for Enterprise Vault. This is required in case you wish to revert the system to its earlier state.
3. Replace vcsapi.dll (from directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\Utilities\FSA Cluster\VCS\5.0\x86) with the renamed binary from the VCS node from Step 1.
4. Create the following registry key:
   • On a 32-bit installation of Windows:
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE \VERITAS\Security\Authentication InstallDir = C:\Program Files\Enterprise Vault\Utilities\FSA Cluster\VCS\5.0\x86\
   • On a 64-bit installation of Windows:
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE \Wow6432Node\VERITAS\Security\Authentication InstallDir = C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\Utilities\FSA Cluster\VCS\5.0\x86\
     Note: The path must have a trailing "\"
5. Deploy the Authentication Client Libraries:
   1. Create a Bin directory at the following location:
      C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\Utilities\FSA Cluster\VCS\5.0\x86
   2. Copy the following binaries from SFWHA / VCS cluster node:
      %vcs_home%\eat\bin\*.dll
6. Deploy the copied binaries at the following location on the Enterprise Vault server:
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\Utilities\FSA Cluster\VCS\5.0\x86\Bin
7. Run the FSA Cluster Configuration wizard to configure the FSA resource.

Note:  If you have a single node cluster setup, then add the following registry entry on the Enterprise Vault server and the cluster node.

On a 32-bit installation of Windows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\KVS\Enterprise Vault\FSA

On a 64-bit installation of Windows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\KVS\Enterprise Vault\FSA

Create “SingleNodeFSA” (DWORD) with value=1 to allow a single-node FSA cluster.

Solution

This issue will be addressed in the next release.

• Veritas Storage Foundation HA for Windows 6.0 or higher (SFW-HA)
• Veritas Cluster Server for Windows 6.0 or higher (VCS) 
• Veritas InfoScale Cluster Server for Windows 7.0 (VCS)
• Enterprise Vault for File System Archiving 9.x, 10.x, 11 .x