Environment
Novell Client 2 SP3 for Windows
Novell Client 2 SP4 for Windows
Situation
When unlocking the workstation, the error is seen:
"The eDirectory credentials cannot be validated at this time because the network connection to the Novell network was lost. Please enter the password for the Windows account to unlock the computer now, or wait and try the network password again later."
The user can then unlock the workstation by using the Windows credentials, and all network connections, mapped drives, etc. appear as expected.
eDirectory and Windows passwords are synchronized.
Resolution
Using REGEDIT.EXE, create a DWORD (32-bit) value in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\NICI] with a name of EnableUserProfileDirectory assign value data of 1.
Cause
There may be multiple possible causes for this condition to occur. In this case, because the unlock always results in full network access, the problem seems to be an authentication failure, rather than a network connection failure.
See KB 3576402 for more information about the cause of the authentication failure and the EnableUserProfileDirectory setting.
Additional Information
Examining an NCCredProvider log (See KB 7007070), you will find lines such as:
CNetwork::NMASVerifyCredentials for "<username>" password PRESENT (8 chars) and sequence "" returned status 0xFFFFFA27.
CNetwork::NetworkVerifyCredentials() - returned 0xFFFFFA27
CCredential::Connect() - m_networkResult = 0xFFFFFA27