Error executing action `create` on resource 'directory[C:/topdir/subdir]' - windows

Question

I'm getting permissions errors with the create action on windows servers.
Initially I was doing this in one recipe:
directory "C:/topdir" do
rights :full_control, 'Users'
action :create
end
directory "C:/topdir/subdir" do
action :create
recursive true
end
If I run this in test kitchen or even login to a bootstrapped server and run chef-client it completes with no errors.
But I see these errors on Chef server when it runs automatically:
Description: Error executing action `create` on resource 'directory[C:/topdir/subdir]'
Chef::Exceptions::InsufficientPermissions
Cannot create directory[C:/topdir/subdir] at C:/topdir/subdir due to insufficient permissions
It seems I "fixed" this by replacing rights :fullcontrol, 'Users' with rights :fullcontrol, 'Everyone' but I don't want that and it doesn't make sense to me why that would be necessary.
Why is this happening?
Also, how can I test this if the errors only happen during automated chef runs- I can only see errors in chef server reporting. How can I see what user this is even running in? I assumed local system but I guess not? It works running chef-client locally from an elevated prompt so why would it not work when running on schedule?

Answer 1

My knowledge of Windows is limited, but in general I think services get run as a dedicated SYSTEM user, which is not part of the Users group.