How to give a Window Service access on a remote machine?

Question

I'm working on a Windows Service that one of its tasks is archiving files on remote machine but I've problem regarding access privileges "Access id denied".

The service account is "LocalService",

How can I give service access to remote machine?

Answer 1

LocalService cannot have permissions on another machine, so you'll need to change the service account to something else and make sure the account has the necessary permissions on the remote machine.

Answer 2

A service on server1 that's running under the Local Service principal and that tries to access the folder on server2 is seen as an anonymous connection attempt that is or isn't allowed depending on the policy of server2. So you need to either allow anonymous access on server2 or change the service account (recommended).

Answer 3

You'll need to run the service in a dedicated account (such as a domain account) that both machines recognise. Then grant this account the necessary ACL permissions to access the second machine.

If you aren't on a domain, there are things you can do with having the same username and password...

Another approach is to use the "network service" account - this will authenticate with the identity of the machine that is hosting the service; it can work, but personally I like the dedicated account approach - it makes it easier to achieve granular security, and means you can relocate the service to another host without much effort.