Summary

This article describes the error of "An error occurred loading data from the beacon service: The data is invalid" and how to avoid the error.

Synopsis

Users may see the error of "An error occurred loading data from the beacon service: The data is invalid" when launching a beacon.



In the "inventorybeaon.log", you will see the following error.

2017-06-09 12:38:10,936 [Beacon.MainForm ] [ERROR] Failed to load data from service. Exiting application.
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException: The data is invalid.

at System.Security.Cryptography.ProtectedData.Unprotect(Byte[] encryptedData, Byte[] optionalEntropy, DataProtectionScope scope)
at ManageSoft.Compliance.Security.Cryptography.DPAPIAESDataProtectScheme.Init(Byte[] entropy, Byte[] key)
at Flexera.Beacon.Data.BusinessImport.DDIJob.LoadAttributesFromImportNode(XElement node)
at Flexera.Beacon.Data.BusinessImport.DDIJob.LoadAttributesFromImportNode(String ddiFile)
at Flexera.Beacon.Data.BusinessImport.DDIJobCollection.Load(String path)
at Flexera.Beacon.Data.BusinessImport.DDIJobCollection..ctor(String path)
at ManageSoft.Compliance.Beacon.Data.DataStore.LoadConnections()
at ManageSoft.Compliance.Beacon.Data.DataStore..ctor(IBeaconDataLayer beaconDataLayer)
at ManageSoft.Compliance.Beacon.MainForm..ctor()

Discussion

This error happens when the encrypted connection string cannot be decrypted. When the serial number or hardware information of the beacon machine is changed, the encryption is no longer valid for the machine and can cause the error.

1) Move all business adapters from "C:\ProgramData\Flexera Software\Beacon\BusinessAdapter" to a different directory and then try to open the beacon UI.

2) If it opens without any error, you can confirm the problem came from one of the moved adapters.

3) Identify the problematic adapter by putting the adapters back one by one to the original folder.

4) Remove the connection string from the adapter XML and re-configure the connection string.