Remote Debugging: Target computer cannot connect back to this computer. Authentication Failed

Question

I am trying to set up remote debugging from my development machine into a production environment running in a virtual machine, but no matter what I do I get the following error:

Unable to connect to the Microsoft Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor named . The Visual Studio Remote Debugger on the target computer cannot connect back to this computer. Authentication failed. Please see Help for assistance.

This is my setup:

Host Machine: Windows 7 Professional x86 Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate

Virtual Machine: Windows 7 Professional x86

Both computers are on the same domain, with the same username and password. The firewall on the remote computer is turned off and the firewall on the host is on, but turning it off produces the same error. The accounts on both machines are members of the Administrators group and running both msvsmon and visual studio as administrator or either/or produces the same result. When I put the server name in the qualifier field in "attach to process" and click refresh, I can see the log on the remote machine saying that the host is connected but that is followed immediately by the above error. Lastly, and this may be the most important piece of information, when the authentication fails, I get an entry in the even log that states that a user account was locked out:

A user account was locked out.

Subject:
Security ID: SYSTEM
Account Name: MyHostComputerName$
Account Domain: DomainWhichBothMachinesAreOn
Logon ID: 0x3e7

Account that was locked out:
Security ID: MyHostComputerName \ MyUsername *(which is identical on both machines)* Account Name: MyUserName

Additional Information:
Caller Computer Name: MyVirtualMachineName

I have read seemingly every tutorial, help ticket and random bit of information regarding this problem and remote debugging in general and tried just about every "quick fix". I would be very appreciative of any ideas. I can provide any additional information if needed. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

"MyHostComputerName \ MyUsername" seems to indicate the VM service is trying to authenticate with a local user, not the domain user

have you created the same user & password as local accounts on both systems?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms164725.aspx

Answer 2

I had this same problem running VS 2010 Pro on Windows 7 Pro accessing Remote Debugger 2010 on Windows 2008 R2. I had created identical accounts on the server running the debugger and on my domain. I was running under my identical accounts both visual studio and remote debugger with administrator rights and with the firewall turned off. on both systems.

the error I got was "... the visual studio remote debugger on the target computer cannot connect back to this computer ..." I found this issue with both VS 2010 and VS 2005 so I knew it was an issue with my system

SOLUTION - add a local user account to your system running visual studio as a domain account won't work (you can run visual studio under the domain account, you just need the local account to be present with admin rights assigned).

I know this answer is for an old thread but there are a number of threads out there on this issue with no solution.

Answer 3

Go to target computer (that you want to debug remotely), open windows explorer and visit computer from which you are debugging. It will prompt for username password. Enter credentials for account that exist on both computers and has relevant permission. After it authenticates you will be able to use remote debugger.

My config was BOTH COMPUTERS IN WORKGROUP.

Answer 4

In my case when adding mu local computers credentials to remote host problem solved.

Answer 5

The credential is the workaround for the case when you have a "domain admin computer with vs studio" machine trying to remote debug a "non domain admin computer" machine from different domains.