CryptoAPI cryptographic service provider (CSP) for this

NER

Does any one know what the following error means?

Unexpected error: CryptoAPI cryptographic service provider (CSP) for this
implementation could not be acquired.
CryptoAPI cryptographic service provider (CSP) for this implementation could not be acquired.
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException
at System.Security.Cryptography.RSACryptoServiceProvider..ctor(Int32 dwKeySize, CspParameters parameters, Boolean useDefaultKeySize)
at _1._1(XmlDocument )
at _1._1(String )
at _1._2(String )
at _1._5()
at RedGate.SQLDataCompare.CommandLine.Runner.Run()
at RedGate.SQLDataCompare.CommandLine.Startup._1(String[] )

Brian Donahue

Hi,

I'm well familiar with this error, it relates to the inability of Windows to access a crypto key in order to decrypt the licence information.

There are a number of causes. If your user profile got corrupted, first of all, so try logging off and on again. Second, due to an issue with XP service pack 2, you may not have rights to the machine key store
%allusersprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\machinekeys
--you need to be able to read from that folder, and also write to the one in your own profile--
%userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto

I believe that you could also have these problems simply because your user profile is a mandatory roaming profile. If you can't save key files into your profile, then you can't use the MS CryptoAPI.

Hopefully this helps!

skiskool

I note with interest the need to access the user profile, and problems caused by having a mandatory profile. We are experiencing the same CryptoAPI CSP problem, however our environment is a little tricky.

We are running SQL Bundle 5 through Softgrid on Citrix servers. We use a mandatory profile, with Appsense Environment Manager to do psuedo roaming of bits of the user profile.

Do you have a suggested method of dealing with the mandatory profile limitation? Can we save anything at logoff and reload it at logon - in effect maintaining the settings in the user profile?

Our situation is further complicated by the fact that SQL Bundle is published and available on Softgrid across several Citrix servers, which are dynamically allocated at logon. If a user logs onto a server where they didn't personally activate the product, will it still work for them?

Any help is appreciated.
cheers
Ste

Brian Donahue

I'd have to say that the best thing would be to check with Citrix on that.

There should be support for mandatory roaming profiles in SQL Data Compare 6. I believe it already works with SQL Compare 6. The Red Gate licensing components had been fixed a while ago, and the new code is being phased in gradually as the products get updated.