SharePoint : User profile Sync Service Stuck at starting , at Configuring certificates step .

Seen this in couple of Scenarios where stating the UserProfile Sync service is stuck on starting as seen from Central Admin . Looking at the ULS logs filtered on Category ="User Profiles" we can see the ILM configuration step last being executed is Tag 9q1h : ILM Configuration: Configuring certificate.

ULS Log Expert

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OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9i1s        Medium        UserProfileApplication.SynchronizeMIIS: Begin setup for 'UPA1'.        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        g4bo        High         ILM Configuration: The ValidateMiisEncryptionKey process returned True.        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9i1x        Medium        ILMPostSetupConfiguration: ILM Configuration: Validating installation of SQL Service.        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9i1y        Medium        ILM Configuration: Validating account.        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9i20        Medium        ILM Configuration: Validating the system groups        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9i23        Medium        ILM Configuration: Setting up WMI        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9i24        Medium        ILM Configuration: Setting required permissions        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9i26        Medium        ILM Configuration: Create install config file        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9i28        Medium        ILM Configuration: Update source project        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9i29        Medium        ILM Configuration: Changing service account credentials        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        d3bo        Medium        ILM Configuration: Setting policy for service account        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9i2a        Medium        ILM Configuration: Configuring database        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9i2b        Medium        ILM Configuration: Re-starting mms service

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9i2d        Medium        LM Configuration: Checking mms service        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9q1e        Medium        ILM Configuration: Configuring XML file       

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9q1f        Medium        ILM Configuration: Checking for existing FIM database        

OWSTIMER.EXE SharePoint Portal Server        User Profiles        9q1h        Medium        ILM Configuration: Configuring certificate.       

During this Step we provision the certificates used by the Forefront Identity manager . Here is how this certificate looks like .

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At times due to multiple provision attempts to Sync service we may end up seeing multiple certs in the Local computer store of Certificate manager & this some times leads to sync service getting stuck at this step & the provisioning process even if retried starts & gets stuck again at this step ,

The Solution to fix this is to remove all the copies the ForeFrontIdentityManager Certificate from all the containers of Certificate Store (Local Computer). Including the Personal Store

Recycle the Sharepoint Timer Service & try to provision the User Profile Synchronization service again & you should see this move forward from that step , unless we get into other issues of Certificate creation itself.

 

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POST BY :Rajan Kapoor [MSFT]