If you attempt to log in to the SAS® Metadata Server from a SAS client after having previously logged in with a userid and/or password that contained a double-byte character set (DBCS) character, the attempt might fail. The following error appears in the Metadata Server log:

  2010-12-10T16:08:51,908 INFO  [00535692] :sasinst - Invalid connection
  to authentication server.

You will still be prompted for your credentials.

The error is reported to the Metadata Server by the SAS Authentication Server. The sasauth debug log will report the following note and error:

 NOTE: Bad Connection to Authentication Server.
 ERROR: Unknown User: Authentication failed.

There are issues unrelated to SAS that can cause the Authentication Server to fail with an "Unknown user" error. However, in diagnosing this problem, the more important message is the "Bad Connection to Authentication Server" note.

For confirmation, follow the instructions in SAS KB0036227.

Select the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.

Operating System and Release Information

A fix for this issue for Base SAS 9.21_M3 is available at: