Resolving The Problem

In dsm.opt file, two options are set:

PASSWORDACCESS GENERATE

RUNASSERVICE YES

While trying to initialize the IBM Spectrum Protect Client GUI or Command Line, the following error is observed:

ANS2050E TSM needs to prompt for the password but cannot prompt because the process is running in the background.
ANS1025E Session rejected: Authentication failure

The most common cause of the ANS1025E/ANS2050E error messages is an incorrect password being supplied to the IBM Spectrum Protect Server for authentication. The normal process to correct an ANS1025E error message is to reset the password but, in this instance, there is no prompt to enter a password. This is because RUNASSERVICE YES (* see explanation below) is set in the dsm.opt file, and will not allow the password prompt due to a command process already running.

To have the ability to reset the password, set RUNASSERVICE NO and start the IBM Spectrum Protect Client. This will prompt for the password and regenerate the password in the registry upon successful login.

* The runasservice option forces the client command process to continue running, even if the account that started the client logs off. Use this option with the AT command and the dsmc sched command when you schedule client command batch jobs. The runasservice option is not valid in any options file (dsm.opt or tsmasr.opt).

Recommendation: Use the scheduler service when running IBM Spectrum Protect services unattended. Set runasservice=yes only to schedule IBM Spectrum Protect commands using the Windows AT command. Setting runasservice=yes might interfere with other interactive uses of the IBM Spectrum Protect client.

Note: This problem can also occur when after a IBM Spectrum Protect client has its hostname changed after its first backup. In this case the changes should be made to the dsm.sys file, not the dsm.opt file.