cluster network node name fails to come online!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve Duff [MVP]
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Steve Duff [MVP]

There are a few things to check first: (1) WINS/DNS and AD
for duplicate computer names to the virtual one trying to
register, (2) using netdiag /fix and nbtstat to diagnose and
resolve hard-to-spot naming issues. (These latter are reskit
and \Tools programs you'll need to install if you
don't already have them loaded.)

After that my experience is that the quickest way to resolve
problems like this is to just junk the existing WINS database(s) and
reinitialize. They can get corrupt in very peculiar ways.

Whether this is an option for you depends on how much
your clients and network depends on WINS (past the cluster --
which is to say how much Win9x do you have?),
how much WINS replication you have going on, geographic
dispersal, etc. It's hard for me to speak to your situation, but
you might consider it.

Steve Duff, MCSE
Ergodic Systems, Inc.
 
Steve Duff said:
There are a few things to check first: (1) WINS/DNS and AD
for duplicate computer names to the virtual one trying to
register, (2) using netdiag /fix and nbtstat to diagnose and
resolve hard-to-spot naming issues. (These latter are reskit
and \Tools programs you'll need to install if you
don't already have them loaded.)

After that my experience is that the quickest way to resolve
problems like this is to just junk the existing WINS database(s) and
reinitialize. They can get corrupt in very peculiar ways.

Whether this is an option for you depends on how much
your clients and network depends on WINS (past the cluster --
which is to say how much Win9x do you have?),
how much WINS replication you have going on, geographic
dispersal, etc. It's hard for me to speak to your situation, but
you might consider it.
Click to expand...

Actually, I bet it's the PTR registration "bug". If a network name resource
is able to register the A record, it must also register the PTR record or
the name won't come online.
 
dude said:
We have an Exchange 5.5sp4 cluster on Win2k sp2, 2 nodes. I've been
having this problem since we migrated our WINS server onto Win2k
servers. The cluster network name would fail to come online.
Recently, the main cluster virtual name that users connect to failed
also. Because all the rest of the Exchange resources depend on this,
they fail along with it!! I'm running our cluster half-assed right
now with Exchange services started at the Services level but not
cluster level. I consulted the document at,
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;257903 , but
it still does not work. I see the cluster network name tries to
register in the WINS database. However, the resource would fail
right away upon registration with WINS servers, then I see a
"released" status for the cluster network name record in the WINS
database. Does anyone know how to fix this? It's a problem with
WINS but I don't know how to solve it.

NOTE:
- I have no static WINS entries created for these cluster virtual
names.
- I am not using any kind of LMHOST or HOSTS files.
- There are 2 WINS servers. One primary and one secondary. I've
deleted those failed released name registrations, initiated manual
push/pull and made sure they don't exist on the WINS servers. I then
rebooted Exchange servers. Upon reboot, cluster name registrations
fail AGAIN. - Eventlog shows cluster events 1119 followed by 1052;
saying "Cluster Network Name resource 'Cluster Name' cannot be
brought online because the name could not be added to the system".
The article I referenced above indicated that there is a name
conflict. - We recently migrated to AD, but the problem started
before that. I noticed that cluster virtual names do not show up as
computer accounts in AD, only show up in Network Neighborhood.
However, if I use the good old Server Manager, then they show up as
computer accounts. The cluster virtual names that aren't coming
online don't have computer objeccts shown in server manager. I'm not
sure if this has anything to do with it.


thanks
Click to expand...

its probably to do with the fact that you're a day ahead of the
rest of us and it'll come online if it ever catches up ..... ;o)
 
Hahah!! That's a no. Just to drop another note. This problem started
before we went to AD, before we even had Win2k DNS in place. We were on
BIND when this happened. It is a problem with WINS that I'm not able to
track down. When we moved our WINS servers onto Win2k (was on NT4.0 WINS),
we started with a fresh database.
 
I am curious...

I have been reading through articles in this newsgroup for well over a
day, and your article always comes up as the most recent... as if the
time and date automatically update all the time so as to keep it at
the top of the list.... How did you do that?

-- Jim
 
We have an Exchange 5.5sp4 cluster on Win2k sp2, 2 nodes. I've been having
this problem since we migrated our WINS server onto Win2k servers. The
cluster network name would fail to come online. Recently, the main cluster
virtual name that users connect to failed also. Because all the rest of the
Exchange resources depend on this, they fail along with it!! I'm running
our cluster half-assed right now with Exchange services started at the
Services level but not cluster level. I consulted the document at,
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;257903 , but it
still does not work. I see the cluster network name tries to register in
the WINS database. However, the resource would fail right away upon
registration with WINS servers, then I see a "released" status for the
cluster network name record in the WINS database. Does anyone know how to
fix this? It's a problem with WINS but I don't know how to solve it.

NOTE:
- I have no static WINS entries created for these cluster virtual names.
- I am not using any kind of LMHOST or HOSTS files.
- There are 2 WINS servers. One primary and one secondary. I've deleted
those failed released name registrations, initiated manual push/pull and
made sure they don't exist on the WINS servers. I then rebooted Exchange
servers. Upon reboot, cluster name registrations fail AGAIN.
- Eventlog shows cluster events 1119 followed by 1052; saying "Cluster
Network Name resource 'Cluster Name' cannot be brought online because the
name could not be added to the system". The article I referenced above
indicated that there is a name conflict.
- We recently migrated to AD, but the problem started before that. I
noticed that cluster virtual names do not show up as computer accounts in
AD, only show up in Network Neighborhood. However, if I use the good old
Server Manager, then they show up as computer accounts. The cluster virtual
names that aren't coming online don't have computer objeccts shown in server
manager. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it.


thanks
 
Dude said:
Hahah!! That's a no. Just to drop another note. This problem started
before we went to AD, before we even had Win2k DNS in place. We were on
BIND when this happened. It is a problem with WINS that I'm not able to
track down. When we moved our WINS servers onto Win2k (was on NT4.0 WINS),
we started with a fresh database.
Click to expand...

I stand by my statement.

A Win2K cluster node will attempt to register with both DNS and WINS.

If the registration of the HOST or A record (which maps the name to an IP
address) succeeds, then the registration of the PTR record (which maps the
IP to a name) *must* also succeed.

If you do not have dynamic DNS for your forward lookup zone, the DNS forward
registration will fail but the name will come online anyway )unless you've
set the "require DNS" flag for that name resource.)

BUT, if the forward dynamic registration succeeds and then the reverse DNS
registration fails, the resource will fail. (And as a side effect it will
release it's NetBIOS name with the WINS server giving you exactly the result
you're seeing.)
 
If this is the problem, a basic netdiag /fix will take
care of it, or at least report that the PTR RR
can't be registered for whatever reason (for
example, DDNS disabled.)

However, if one doesn't have DDNS enabled for the FLZ
for a cluster server domain, one is asking for all
sorts of problems.

Steve Duff, MCSE
Ergodic Systems, Inc.
 
Let me throw this back again and see if you get more perplexed. We have 2
Exchange clusters and we have not changed DNS configurations on any cluster
nodes to point to our new Win2k DNS servers. Again, they still point to DNS
service on BIND on HP-UX. Due to some delicate issues we ran into in the
past, we usually wait longer before we make any changes on cluster nodes.
We have two clusters and it is working on one of the clusters; although the
strange thing is that there are 2 virtual cluster names as you may know (one
for cluster group, one inside the Exchange resource server group). One is
working and one is not. Things did not go south until we rebooted it the
other day following a reboot on the WINS servers. I will give Netdiag /fix
a shot. But again, I want to say that this problem started BEFORE WE WENT
TO AD. Dynamic DNS registration was checked but certainly not registering
with BIND on HP-UX. So name conflicts, if there were any, were most likely
strictly in WINS, not DNS. Let me re-point the DNS to the Win2k DNS servers
and see what I come up with next week some time. I will keep you updated
 
I want thank Doug! Indeed, the problem stemmed from the fact that the
servers must register with DNS. I re-pointed DNS under TCP/IP settings last
night then everything came back alive afterwards! Thanks again guys!
 
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