QlikView Distibution Service not working

[sntomjans]

On our QlikView server the QDS stopped working without us changing anything.

Server info:
Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
QlikView November 2018 SR3

When i start QDS i get the following error:

And in the event viewer i can see the following error:

Startup failure. Read the log file and/or event log for determinating the cause of this problem. Note! The service must have sufficient permissions in Publisher Application Data Folder: "C:\ProgramData\QlikTech\DistributionService". Exception=System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at QDSMain.Clustering.NotificationFiles.TaskNotificationFile.LoadTasks(IEnumerable`1 fileNames)
   at QDSMain.Clustering.NotificationFiles.TaskNotificationFile.Initialize()
   at System.Collections.Generic.List`1.ForEach(Action`1 action)
   at QDSMain.Clustering.NotificationFiles.DefaultMasterNotificationFile.InitializeWithSubscription(Action`1 initNotificationSubscription)
   at QDSMain.Clustering.DefaultClusterNotification.Initialize()
   at QDSMain.MainClass.CheckAndInitializeEnviroment(ILogBucket logBucket, ClusterRegistration clusterReg)
   at QDSMain.MainClass.Run()

In the QMC the taks list is empty and when i try to open the documents tab i get an "Invalid Request: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation."

Things I tried:

• https://support.qlik.com/articles/000005283 
• Restoring QVPR from backup
• Renaming "DistributionService" directory (I can start the QDS once after this but still no tasks or source documents. And the error returns if i restart the QDS)
• Repairing QlikView with the installer
• Replacing entire contents of "C:\ProgramData\QlikTech" from backup

None of the above attempts fixed the issues.  Anyone has a solution?

[NadiaB]

Hi @sntomjans 

Have you checked the privileges of the folders hasn't changed?

Have you checked the service account has access to the server?

Have you checked the service account was not removed from Administrators and QlikView Administrators windows groups?

Have you seen anything in the Windows logs?

It might be necessary to open a case to further investigate the issue.

Kind Regards.

[Brett_Bleess]

Tom, did you open a support case on this?  If not, in addition to what Nadia suggested, the only thing of which I can think would be to increase the logging on the QMS service and check the QMS logs too, but I would be curious to see the QDS Root_date log, as that is the one that will have the most useful information in this case.  The only thing I can figure is you may be having an issue launching the QVB.exe, but need the log in order to see the details there as to how far things are getting on startup before they crash.

Regards,
Brett