An error has occurred while attempting to set task account information

Products

• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

Some of the scheduled tasks are not running, and the status for the tasks is set to "Could not start". The tasks are trying to run as the current user so the attempt was made to change the tasks to run as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. When that attempt was made, the error displayed, “An error has occurred while attempting to set task account information. The specific error is: 0x8007007a: The data area passed to a system call is too small.”

 

The tasks were re-created, but the same error still occurred and the tasks that were previously running as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM now no longer work. The attempt to create a new task was made and following error came back: "The new task has been created, but may not run because the account information could not be set. The specific error is: 0x8007007a: The data area passed to a system call is too small."

Cause

The buffer that stores account information for all scheduled tasks is finite and has been exhausted.

Resolution

The below information was taken from tip 6272 at http://www.jsifaq.com.

To work around this feature:

1. Copy and paste the following to a StopStartTaskScheduler.bat file:
   
   @echo off
   net stop "Net Logon"
   net stop "Windows Time"
   net stop "Task Scheduler"
   net start "Windows Time"
   net start "Net Logon"
   net start "Task Scheduler"
   @ping -n 901 127.0.0.1>nul
   @echo You may set the account information for the 'new task' and schedule additional tasks.
   
   
2. Open a CMD prompt.
3. Type StopStartTaskScheduler.bat and press Enter.
4. When you see the "You may set the account information for the 'new task' and schedule additional tasks" message, in 15 minutes, the Task Scheduler scavenger tool, which starts 10 minutes after the Task Scheduler service is started, should have freed enough buffer memory.

Note: You may have to press OK in a dialog that tells you that some scheduled tasks have been missed.

Note: When the script starts the Task Scheduler, it is normal to receive:

The requested service has already been started.
More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2182.

Applies To
Notification Server 6.0.6074 R3