Log Shipping error "Unable to copy the initialization file"
When configuring log shipping on a highly transactional environment (with SQL Clustering setup), we were hit by above error. All the Logins and their privileges are intact within the primary and standby servers along with Local server policies & group policies.
Initial thought of the error brings up permissions issue while copying the file from Primary server to Secondary server, in this case ensure the SQL Server Agent account is using a domain based account with relevant 'ADMIN' or 'NECESSARY' provisions to copy the file. If you are using the shared directories between the servers then ensure this account has WRITE privilege and EVERYONE group has READ access. After all these checks I can confirm that SQL Server services account is running using a domain account which is why I'm stumped, suprisingly if I use my own account to initiate the file copy it works.
Being this is a Clustered setup I have checked that the Secondary serve remains in a different data center where the primary data center domain is differnt to each other, though both the domains have TRUST between each other and relevant service account has necessary privileges to perform FILE COPY activities. Eventually I found that during the log shipping when you register the SQL Server name you have to append the domain name to the secondary server name, such SecondaryServerName.DomanName!