Troubleshooting "Entering credentials has been disabled", "Credential usage is disabled"

[TylerNg]

Issue 

When publishing a workflow to Gallery with user credentials and you run into the following:

Spoiler

Entering credentials has been disabled

When configuring a new Gallery Data Connection the below error comes up when attempting to test or save the connection:

Spoiler

Credential usage is disabled as a result of encryption configuration. Please contact your server administrator.

Environment

• Alteryx Designer
• Alteryx Server

Diagnosis 

You can verify this issue in the AlteryxService logs after a service restart. During the startup you will see a message like the following:

ERROR,8912,AlteryxService,,,,,,,,"AlteryxService_InitLocalEncryptedStorage_Error: Error importing keys to Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys\ directory in ProgramData: Access is denied.  (5)"

Cause

The Alteryx Service account has insufficient permissions to the server's machine key directory (%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys) or specifically the Alteryx Machine Key which is used to encrypt/decrypt user credentials and Gallery data connections. 

Solution

Check your Service Log On As Account. The user set as the Log On As user (the default is Local System account) will need to have specific permissions.

1. Run services.msc (CTRL+R, enter services.msc, and click OK)
2. Locate the Alteryx Service and check the Log On As account
   
   
3. Per the server help documentation, ensure the Service Account has Full Control over %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys**
   
   **If giving permissions to the full directory is not possible due to security reasons you can give it to just the Alteryx Machine key which starts with "3312". Also allowing Full Control over this machine key may fix the issue of the directory access does not.
   
   
4. After granting permissions to the service account, restart the Alteryx Service