Clustering Problem

  • Hi,

    I'd appreciate help or hints or comments on the following situation:

    I have an experimental cluster setup with two nodes and two SQL-Servers. If I move the MSDTC to the node not running the SQL Server (or SQL Server to the node not running MSDTC, whatever), SQL Server reports DTC as not available and any distributed transaction fails.

    Are there any suggestions how to make SQL Server see MSDTC if it is not running on the same node?

    Thanx for your help,

    Guido

  • Hi

    Have you seen this article:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817064

    Assuming you are using Windows 2003.

  • The various sql elements should belong to the relevent resource group this would I assume include msdtc. ( Haven't a cluster to hand currently to check ) The whole point about a cluster is that the resources fail over I can't see why you'd want to disassociate msdtc.

    [font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
    www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
    http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/

  • Hi Enrico, yes, that caused me some trouble a while ago (when moving over to 2K3), but since then I always take care that MSDTC is properly enabled.

    Colin, Microsoft expressly recommends to have MSDTC in a resource group of it's own. Now the problem is, if only one SQL Server fails over, it will not have access to DTC anymore (while the other does).

    Even if I had DTC in the same resource group as one of the SQL Servers, the other one would still not find it if the group fails over.

    Microsoft papers suggest that software running on the node which is not currently hosting DTC will access DTC through a proxy. This seems to be the case, since I can do all the administrative stuff and some tests on the inactive DTC node.

    Only SQL Server seems to be a bit pickish, so I'm wondering if I have overlooked some essential configuration

    Anybody experienced that, too?

    Thank you both very much for your help, anyhow!!!

     

     

  • yeah sorry, only used active - passive with w2003.

    [font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
    www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
    http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/

  • Well, in the final scenario we will be having several nodes with several servers active, and only if one node fails the others take over... otherwise it seems to be such a waste of resources

  • The Windows Server 2003 SP1 fixes much of the MS DTC issues, but you can still have some crop up afterwards. Check for the latest COM+ Rollup Package and apply it to all nodes of the cluster. That should eliminate the rest of the DTC issues. We've had to go down that route to eliminate the problem you speak of.

    K. Brian Kelley
    @kbriankelley

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