NMC: GST service fails immediately - Internal error: could not create database process.

• The NetWorker Management Console (NMC) server is installed on a Windows host
• The NMC (gst) services fail immediately when starting
• The following folders exist:
  • C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\Management\nmcdb
  • C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\Management\nmcdb\pgdata

• The C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\Management\GST\logs\gstd.raw contains:

Internal error: could not get database handle.
ERROR generated: file null line #0
Internal error: could not create database process.
The most recently called subfunction returned error 2.

This can result from issues with Windows permissions on the NMC database volume: Local Service must retain permissions to the nmcdb folder and volume.

gstdbinit creates the nmcdb directory and ensure that the Built-In Local Service user has all the required permissions for that directory.
Read, Execute, and List folder permissions are also required for Local Service from the volume root traversing to the nmcdb directory.
If these permissions are compromised, NMC cannot initialize the database and start.

Perform the following on the NMC server:

1. Open an Administrator Command-Prompt or PowerShell, stop any NMC services that may be running: net stop gst
2. Open services.msc on the NMC server. Validate that the "EMC GST" services are owned by the correct system accounts:
    
   NOTE: If the ownership is not correct. Edit the service from the Properties -> Log On tab.
3. Grant Local Service read/write/modify permissions for the volume that nmcdb resides on recursively
4. If the NMC database (nmcdb) already exists with files in it, ensure that Local Service is also the owner of the nmcdb folder with full control permissions:
    
5. If the NMC database must be manually created, re-create nmcdb using the gstdbinit command located in the GST\bin directory, for example:

.\gstdbinit.exe -D 9 -U "LOCAL SERVICE" -n 5432 "C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\Management\nmcdb"

6. Restart GST services: net start gst

NetWorker - How to Recover the NetWorker Management Console database