I have a server running Windows Server 2016, WDS, and an Active Directory help desk tool for our users. I have no problem authenticating to the server. However, I keep seeing node secret mismatch verification errors from users trying to authenticate to the AD tool. I reset the node secret in RSA to correct this same issue 5 days ago.I refuse to believe that my only solution is to reset the node secret every couple days. Google and the RSA articles I've read have not helped me. Is there any information regarding what can cause node secret errors to happen?
Ed hit the nail on the head here.
UDP agents are identified by IP address in AM and you essentially have two agents running on the same server (ME and the Windows agent). ME is creating its own node secret (as an older agent, it doesn't know about the new format used by your Windows agent). The problem is your server has a node secret for this IP address already and reports back a mismatch.
For the two agents to co-exist, you'll need to use the node secret utility to load the node secret into the Windows agent.
Here is a link to a kb article that has some helpful information.
000030947 - Unable to integrate two RSA Authentication Agents for Windows on the same server (Node Verification Mismatch)
You do not need to disable UAC, you should be able to run the node secret utility using the run as admin functionality instead. If you do disable UAC, it can be safely re-enabled after completing this process. The high level flow is this:
1. Find where Manage Engine is storing its node secret. Probably in C:\Windows\System32 or C:\Windows\SysWOW64 but could be in a ManageEngine directory. The file will be named securid with no extension.
2. Delete this file and then clear the node secret from the Windows agent using the Control Center.
3. Clear the node secret in Authentication Manager.
4. Perform an authentication using Manage Engine allowing it to negotiate a new node secret with AM.
5. Follow the steps in the KB to copy the node secret file over to the Windows agent using the node secret utility.