Symptoms

When installing the local license server as a service using the Network Service account, it has been observed that some flavors of Windows do not have the privilege to write into the Windows Event Log and that produces errors.

Diagnosis

It is necessary to run the local license server with elevated permissions so that it has access to the Windows Registry and Events, but some organizations do not permit this, which causes the local license server to run into these errors and eventually stop running.

2018-10-22 10:20:09,670 INFO - Starting C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_281\jre\bin\java.exe -Xms1g -Xmx1g -XX:MetaspaceSize=256m -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:NewRatio=3 -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=75 -XX:G1HeapWastePercent=10 -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=75 -XX:+CMSScavengeBeforeRemark -XX:+ScavengeBeforeFullGC -jar flexnetls.jar -service -producer-settings producer-settings.xml -port 7070
2018-10-22 10:20:10,655 INFO - Started 2978
2018-10-22 10:21:13,930 ERROR - Failed to log event in Windows Event Log.

Reason

System.Security.SecurityException: The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched. To create the source, you need permission to read all event logs to make sure that the new source name is unique. Inaccessible logs: Security.

at System.Diagnostics.EventLog.FindSourceRegistration(String source, String machineName, Boolean readOnly, Boolean wantToCreate)
at System.Diagnostics.EventLog.SourceExists(String source, String machineName, Boolean wantToCreate)
at System.Diagnostics.EventLogInternal.VerifyAndCreateSource(String sourceName, String currentMachineName)
at System.Diagnostics.EventLogInternal.WriteEntry(String message, EventLogEntryType type, Int32 eventID, Int16 category, Byte[] rawData)
at System.Diagnostics.EventLog.WriteEntry(String message, EventLogEntryType type)
at winsw.WrapperService.LogEvent(String message, EventLogEntryType type

Solution

You can try to follow the following workaround:

1. Open the Windows Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to or expand the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\Security
3. Right click on this entry and select Permissions.
4. Add the Network Service user.
5. Give that user Read permission.

If above does not help, run the local license server with elevated permissions and adjust the group policies in place for the Network User.