Login failed for user ‘DOMAIN\COMPUTER$’. Reason: Could not find a login matching the name provided. [CLIENT: ]

On a recently built SQL Server 2016 observed following errors every 5 mins,

 

Login failed for user ‘DOMAIN\COMPUTER$’. Reason: Could not find a login matching the name provided. [CLIENT: <local machine>]

Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 5

    

 

As part of troubleshooting, tried following,

 

• Created login DOMAIN\COMPUTER$ with public access as well as SA access but error continue to arrive
• Validated all SQL agent jobs, OS scheduler tasks, etc. but found nothing
• Ran SQL profiler to capture login failure attempts, profiler captured error which is coming from application with name “SQLServerCEIP”

 

Now when checked online for SQLSERVERCEIP found that it’s SQL Server 2016 Customer Experience setting which comes enabled by Default in SQL 2016 and hence causing this erratic behavior as our server is not connected to Internet, not sure why Microsoft introduced such behavior when most of DMZ and production server never have Internet access and thus unnecessarily filling SQL error logs.

 

To fix this, found a link on stack overflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43548794/how-to-turn-off-telemetry-for-sql-2016 which helped to turn off this option by updating registry values, this change doesn’t require any outage and is safe to do as we are only playing with CEIP values and nothing else, but to be on safer side, please backup registry before doing this.

 

Microsoft KB article for same: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3153756/how-to-configure-sql-server-2016-to-send-feedback-to-microsoft

 

As soon as registry values are updated, error resolved, no restart or outage required.

 

FIX:

Following registry root keys to be accessed as applicable to environment (replace <instance name> with your instance or use MSSQL for default instance), RS and AS components are optional, remaining should always exists,

 

• Binaries à HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\130\
  
• Analysis services àHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSAS13.<Instance name>\CPE\
  
• Reporting Services à HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS13.<Instance name>\CPE\
  
• MSSQL engine à HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL13.<Instance name>\CPE\
  
• Wow 64 à HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\130\
  

 

Following two registry values to be updated from 1 to 0,

 

• CustomerFeedback=0
  
• EnableErrorReporting=0
  

 

Below is an example (taken from the stackoverflow link stated above),

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\130\CustomerFeedback=0
  
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\130\EnableErrorReporting=0
  
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSAS13.TESTINSTANCE\CPE\CustomerFeedback=0
  
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSAS13.TESTINSTANCE\CPE\EnableErrorReporting=0
  
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS13.TESTINSTANCE\CPE\CustomerFeedback=0
  
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS13.TESTINSTANCE\CPE\EnableErrorReporting=0
  
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL13.TESTINSTANCE\CPE\CustomerFeedback=0
  
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL13.TESTINSTANCE\CPE\EnableErrorReporting=0
  
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\130\CustomerFeedback=0
  
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\130\EnableErrorReporting=0
  

 

 

This can be automated using PowerShell or using registry scripting, one sample is provided on link provide, refer as needed.

 

Hope this helps someone struggling with same issue!

 

 

Ref:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43548794/how-to-turn-off-telemetry-for-sql-2016

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3153756/how-to-configure-sql-server-2016-to-send-feedback-to-microsoft

 

Similar error is SQL 2012 can be because of IIS application pool as described at following link: https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/74061/sql-server-2012-cant-log-in-with-machine-account/74064