Remote Debugging: Target computer cannot connect back to this computer. Authentication Failed

Question

I am trying to set up remote debugging from my development machine into a production environment running in a virtual machine, but no matter what I do I get the following error:

Unable to connect to the Microsoft Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor named . The Visual Studio Remote Debugger on the target computer cannot connect back to this computer. Authentication failed. Please see Help for assistance.

This is my setup:

Host Machine: Windows 7 Professional x86 Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate

Virtual Machine: Windows 7 Professional x86

Both computers are on the same domain, with the same username and password. The firewall on the remote computer is turned off and the firewall on the host is on, but turning it off produces the same error. The accounts on both machines are members of the Administrators group and running both msvsmon and visual studio as administrator or either/or produces the same result. When I put the server name in the qualifier field in "attach to process" and click refresh, I can see the log on the remote machine saying that the host is connected but that is followed immediately by the above error. Lastly, and this may be the most important piece of information, when the authentication fails, I get an entry in the even log that states that a user account was locked out:

A user account was locked out.

Subject:
Security ID: SYSTEM
Account Name: MyHostComputerName$
Account Domain: DomainWhichBothMachinesAreOn
Logon ID: 0x3e7

Account that was locked out:
Security ID: MyHostComputerName \ MyUsername *(which is identical on both machines)* Account Name: MyUserName

Additional Information:
Caller Computer Name: MyVirtualMachineName

I have read seemingly every tutorial, help ticket and random bit of information regarding this problem and remote debugging in general and tried just about every "quick fix". I would be very appreciative of any ideas. I can provide any additional information if needed. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

"MyHostComputerName \ MyUsername" seems to indicate the VM service is trying to authenticate with a local user, not the domain user

have you created the same user & password as local accounts on both systems?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms164725.aspx