symstore error when running TFS 2010 build

Question

Background: I have several builds running on a Windows Server 2003 R2 machine via TFS2010. All of these build definitions have the Path to Publish Symbols set to "\\server\SymbolStore" and the builds run fine.

(Note - I have inherited this set up from a former employee, and I also have other builds running on a separate 2K8 machine that also run without issue)

I am now migrating these builds to a new Windows 2008 R2 build server using the same settings.

Problem: When running the builds on the new build machine, everything is working fine until the build tries to run the "Publish Symbols" activity in the workflow, at which point I get the error

SYMSTORE ERROR: Class: Server. Desc: Couldn't connect to server. Error 5: Access is denied. TF270015: 'symstore.exe' returned an unexpected exit code. Expected '0'; actual '5'.

which also sets the build status to Partially Succeeded.

I have searched the web for these error messages to no avail so far, so does anyone know what might be causing this and how to get it working again?

As always, thanks in advance

Answer 1

Turns out that after I had set up the new build machine, I had left the Credentials for the Build Service Properties (found in the Team Foundation Server Administration Console/Build Configuration) to its default setting which is "NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService". Once I had changed this to use the build service account, the builds are able to write to the symbol store properly

Answer 2

Did you check the folder has the right permissions for the service account that is used by Team Build to create/write files ?