Agent service stops immediatly - evt error Cryptographic Exception : access denied (4036098)

The AppAssure Agent Service fails with the following error.

“System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException: Access is denied”

The reason of it is that the user account you’re running under can’t access crypto keys located at c:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys\.

To resolve this issue, open Sharing and Security and grant the service account under which the Agent Service runs either Full or Read/Write Access to the following folder.

NOTE: Ensure that your user or users group account have ownership on the ‘MachineKeys’ folder.

• Windows 2003 or XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\ApplicationData\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys
• Windows 7, 2008 or later: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986/EN-US/