[Condor-users] Condor on Windows 2003 Server

[Colin Stolley <stolley@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Windows Users,

For those running into issues with running jobs on Condor on Windows 
2003 Server:

On a default installation, my test job (batch file) wouldn't run. The 
tail end of my StarterLog said this:

1/28 15:36:58 Renice expr "10" evaluated to 10
1/28 15:36:58 About to exec C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /Q /C 
condor_exec.bat
1/28 15:36:58 Create_Process: CreateProcess failed, errno=5
1/28 15:36:58 ERROR 
"Create_Process(C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe,condor_exec.exe /Q /C 
condor_exec.bat , ...) failed" at line 493 in file 
..\src\condor_starter.V6.1\os_proc.C
1/28 15:36:58 ShutdownFast all jobs.

However, a non-batch file executable works ok. The cause for this is 
cmd.exe, which has tightened file acls which prevent condor-reuse-vm1 
from running it. Recall that condor-reuse-vm1 is a restricted account, 
with membership only to BUILTIN\Users. If you want to correct this 
problem, you can either

(1) change the acls on %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe to allow 
BUILTIN\Users (or each individual condor-reuse-vm1, 2, 3 .. account) to 
read it.

(2) obtain your own copy of cmd.exe and supply it as the executable in 
your submit file. Then specify your batch script as an argument. Don't 
forget to specify your batch script file in the transfer_input_files list.

I would definitely NOT recommend adding the condor-reuse-vm... accounts 
to the Administrators group, as some have suggested.

I hope you find this helpful,

Colin