I have a ssis script that deletes old backups from a directory. It runs fine when I run it, but fails via the job agent. So I assign the package to run under a proxy account but the script still fails with the error: Unable to start execution of step 2 (reason: Error authenticating proxy ^my_usename_and_password_here^<c/> system error: Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password.) Next I gave the credential for the proxy my domain username and password for testing purposes and the job still failed with the same error, so obviously something else is wrong, as the SQL Job runs fine under my own account when I run it manually. My question is, is there any way to validate a proxy account besides assigning a job to run under that account then attempting to run that job? Also a side question: What is the role of the Principals tab in the Proxy setup dialog box? Thanks in advance (especially for helping me with this issue on a Monday!) Carl

Your user account/ proxy user account should have access to 1) Package that it needs to execute (msdb/ file folder) 2) All the file folders that the package accesses. So ensure that it has access to the directory from where it has to delete the old backups. If the proxy account is an ad account you might try logging into your machine using that accout and open (not execute) your package. The package will then validate all its connections and you must be able to catch some obvious access errors. Principals page allows you to state which roles or accounts can use your proxy; you can grant server roles, logins etc to your proxy from within principals page.http://btsbee.wordpress.com/

Carl, make sure you followed http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2163/running-a-ssis-package-from-sql-server-agent-using-a-proxy-account/ Thinking you did not do all the needed steps with the proxy e.g. sp_grant_proxy_to_subsystem Arthur My Blog

To make this as easy as possible I configured the proxy credentials to be my own user info (ie my login & possword) then moved the delete folder to a local folder and ran the job as a proxy but it failed with the same error. (reason: Error authenticating proxy ^my_proxy_name_here^, system error: Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password), The step failed. Plus I followed all 6 of Arshad Ali's steps at: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2163/running-a-ssis-package-from-sql-server-agent-using-a-proxy-account/ Then when I toggle the job back to run without a proxy it works no problem. It's almost EOD Pacific so i'll keep experimenting tomorrow but any additional advise is greatly appreciated. I would be nice if there was some "Test Credentials" or "Test Proxy" button like there is with connection information if any SQL Server Product Engineers happen to read this...Carl

You suffer the effects of lacking the proper security, this is all. You need to ensure the proxy has proper rights to access you data source/destination.Arthur My Blog