SAS® Enterprise Miner™ Workstation displays the error "The application could not log on to the server "localhost:0" when you create a project


When you create a project within SAS Enterprise Miner Workstation, you might encounter either of the following error messages:

Error 1:

The application could not log on to the server "localhost:0". Integrated Windows authentication failed.

Error 2:

The security package failed while authenticating a user.
 

Typically, these error messages occur when there is an issue with the hosts file in your Microsoft Windows operating environment. The hosts file is used to map host names to IP addresses. In order for SAS Enterprise Miner Workstation to function properly, the operating system must be able to resolve the host name and the keyword localhost to the standard loopback address: 127.0.0.1. In most cases, this is default behavior for Windows operating systems. However, it is possible for this default behavior to be changed, subsequently causing SAS Enterprise Miner Workstation to display the aforementioned errors when you create a project.

Resolve the Problem

If you encounter either of these error messages when attempting to create a project within SAS Enterprise Miner Workstation, then the first step is to inspect the hosts file with a text editor. By default, the hosts file is located here: your-Windows-system-path\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

 

In this directory path, your-Windows-system-path specifies the installation location for your Windows operating system (example: C:\Windows)

 

To achieve the required behavior, the hosts file must contain a line like this one:

127.0.0.1 localhost host-name
 

In this line, host-name specifies the actual host name of your machine. If you do not know the host name for your machine, then see the section Determine the Host Name of Your Machine to determine the name for your machine.

If your hosts file does not contain such a line, then add it.

Note: If your machine has a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), then it is appropriate to enter that value between localhost and host-name. Details about determining whether your machine has an FQDN can be found in Determine the Host Name of Your Machine. Furthermore, the hosts files should contain only one line that begins with 127.0.0.1. This IP address should always be followed by localhost and then host-name (with the FQDN between them, if you have one). If the file contains other lines that begin with 127.0.0.1, you should delete those lines or hide them (comment out) by prefixing the line with a # character. If you need to map other names to that IP address, those other names should follow on the same line, separated by spaces.

After you make any necessary changes to the hosts file, save the changes. While it is not typical, you might need to restart the operating system so that the changes take effect. Once the hosts file is within the specifications above and the changes are in effect, these errors should no longer occur when you try to create a project in SAS Enterprise Miner Workstation.

Collect Data for Further Investigation

If either of the errors persists after you complete the steps in the last section, collect the following items before engaging SAS Technical Support:

Determine the Host Name of Your Machine

If you do not know the host name of your machine or if you do not know whether your machine has an FQDN, complete the following steps:

1. Open a command prompt as an administrator, as follows:

  1. Click the Windows logo key (Start).
  2. In the search text box, enter the command cmd.
  3. Find the Command Prompt app that appears in the results and click the Run as administrator link that is associated with the app.

2. Enter the following command in the Command Prompt window and press Enter:

ipconfig /all
 

3. At the top of the output that is generated by executing this command, find the text Host Name and Primary Dns Suffix.

The value that is associated with Host Name is the host name for your machine. If the value that is associated with Primary Dns Suffix is blank, then your machine does not have an FQDN. However, if Primary Dns Suffix shows an associated value, then your machine does have an FQDN. The FQDN is the concatenation of your machine's host name and primary DNS suffix, joined by a period (.), as shown in the example below:


Preserve Existing Mapping to Avoid an Issue from a Problematic Configuration

One specific, problematic configuration that SAS Technical Support has observed is a case where some virtualization software modifies the default host file to contain a line like the following:

127.0.0.1 view-localhost

This configuration results in the error messages mentioned earlier because it does not meet the requirement to map the keyword localhost to 127.0.0.1. To preserve this existing mapping and allow SAS Enterprise Miner Workstation to function, modify the line so that it looks like this: 

127.0.0.1 localhost view-localhost