Error: "Machine name not unique"

This support note applies to:

AO Tax (AU)
AE System Release (NZ)
AE System Release (AU)
AE MAS (NZ)
AE MAS (AU)
AE Assets (AU)
AE Assets (NZ)
AE Tax Series 6 & 8 (AU)
AE Tax (AU)

Article ID: 27473

When opening System Release or System Services applications such as Tax or MAS, you may experience the error "Machine Name not Unique".

all users log onto the same Terminal Server
another workstation has the same machine name
files have remained open on the file server
the s60 files are corrupt.

To resolve this error you will need to know what type of network environment you are using.

If you use a Terminal Server environment

If users log into a Terminal Server to access AE, AO or System Release, you'll need to create a Windows batch file (.cmd) to prevent this issue from occurring each time a user logs into a System Services application. If you experience this error when accessing Tax from:

Application	Refer to...
System Release	Error: "Machine Name not Unique" when opening System Release on a Terminal Server Environment
Contacts (Series 6/8)	Error: "Machine Name not Unique" when opening Tax from Integrated Release in a 64 bit Terminal Services Environment
Practice Manager	Error: "Machine Name not Unique" when opening Tax or MAS from AE Practice Manager on a Terminal Server environment
Accountants Office	Error: "Machine Name not Unique" when opening Tax from AO Practice Manager on a Terminal Server Environment

These articles will step you through the process of allowing System Services to identify users via their Windows Username instead of the Machine Name of the Terminal Server they are logged into.

If you use a Network environment

Check the following:

If...

then..

Your Username is logged into another workstation

the user you are attempting to log in as already has an open session of the System Services application. To confirm this, logq into System Services as another user and from the Tasks panel, expand Administration then select User Accounts. If your username is already logged in which is indicated with a green tick, reset the user session by right-clicking on the username and selecting Reset.

Another workstation has the same machine name

check all workstations running AE/AO have a unique workstation name. To check what your machine name is follow the menu path from the Windows desktop: Start > Control Panel > System and note the Computer name. Check that there are no other machines on the network with this same name.

System Release only recognises the first 14 characters of the machine name. Where sequential numbers are used at the end of a set prefix, for example MY-WORKSTATION1 and MY-WORKSTATION2, as the prefix contains 14 characters, both machines appear as 'MY-WORKSTATION' to System Release and therefore causes the error to appear. If this is the case, you will need to change the machine names so that the first 14 characters do not match.

We recommend contacting your network administrator before changing the Computer or Domain name.

Files have remained open on the File server

when a user has logged out of the software on their machine, AE/AO program files may still be open in their name.

To check open files, from the desktop of your server, follow the menu path: Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management and expand Shared Files on the left-hand pane, then click Open Files. If any files in SOL64 or MYOBAE\Registration are not being used by the affected user, close these files by highlighting the files, then right click and select Close Open Files.

This issue usually occurs where Opportunistic Locking has not been disabled. To prevent this issue in the future, we recommend Turning off opportunistic locking.

s60 files are corrupt

Ensure all users are logged out of the software and perform an EPRESET.

For information on how to perform an EPRESET refer to the following articles:

If you are using...	refer to...
Accountants Enterprise (AE)	Performing an EPRESET in Accountants Enterprise
Accountants Office (AO)	Performing an EPRESET in Accountants Office

If you use Vizpost integration, make sure you’ve stopped the Vizpost background process before deleting/renaming the files

The s60.tcf and s60.tnf files contain a list of all logged in users. If performing an EPRESET does not resolve the issue, navigate to your X:\SOL64\s6 folder and delete the s60.tcf and s60.tnf, any s50 files or folders ending in .VID.

For information on how to determine your SOL64 folder, refer to Finding the SOL64 or Tax directory.

The s60 and s50 files are hidden files. To show hidden files in a folder, follow the instructions in Viewing hidden files, folders and drives or enabling file extensions in Windows.

If you are restarting Background Processes

When restarting Background Post Processes using MYOB Administration Centre or Run CDSVizpost, you may receive the error "Machine Name not Unique" when you are connected to the server via a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection.

In this scenario, System Services uses the machine name of your local machine, that is the name of the computer that you are running the RDP connection from.

Disconnect the RDP session then physically log onto your server and restart the background post processes.