June 17, 2002 at 9:13 pm
Here is a relatively interesting stumper. The first symptom is a linked server connecting to an access database will not work on one node in a cluster. The second symptom is on that same cluster node, the server network tools will not load if it is the active node. The setup parameters are as follows: Windows 2000 SP2, SQL Server 2000 Enterprise SP2.
Now this is where it gets interesting. I noticed that the version of MDAC dlls on the "problem" node are from MDAC 2.6 RTM (SQL Server 2000) and the version on the working node is MDAC 2.6 SP2 (SQL Server 2000 SP2). I received no errors installing SQL 2000 service pack 2, although it seems the problem node has the wrong, older version of the MDAC dlls.
So far I have tried running the MDAC 2.6 SP 2 refresher on the problem node, with no success. I am very limited as far as troubleshooting is concerned, meaning failovers will be few and far between. Saying all of that, is there anyone who may have any questions as to how I might be able to approach this? Also, does it seem reasonable to assume that the inconsistent file versions may be the problem, judging by the symptoms? Any help on this would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Eric S.
June 18, 2002 at 11:01 am
This sounds a bit scary to me... I plan on upgrading to SP2 on my cluster soon.
Did you install SP2 on the primary node first?
Are there any MDAC files on the failed system with a .1 file extention?
What method are you using to check the version of MDAC? cc.exe?
Were SQL Services running under a Non-Administrative account during the install (Q308829)?
Sorry for all the questions... I'm just digging for anything that will help us figure this out.
June 18, 2002 at 11:14 am
quote:
This sounds a bit scary to me... I plan on upgrading to SP2 on my cluster soon.Did you install SP2 on the primary node first?
Are there any MDAC files on the failed system with a .1 file extention?
What method are you using to check the version of MDAC? cc.exe?
Were SQL Services running under a Non-Administrative account during the install (Q308829)?
Sorry for all the questions... I'm just digging for anything that will help us figure this out.
1. I installed the service pack while the virtual cluster was on the working node.
2. No.
3. I checked the version of the .dlls and compared them against the dll list for MDAC in the release notes for MDAC 2.6 RTM and MDAC 2.6 SP2.
4. They were running as an administrative account.
June 18, 2002 at 11:32 am
Damn... sounds like you did everything right.
Does SQL show as SP2 on the problem node?
From the microsoft site it show that the version of the MDAC 2.6 SP2 Refresh has a lower version number than the MDAC 2.6 SP2 that is shipped with SQL 2000 SP2. It's possable that the registry version was updated during the SQL SP2 install but the files were never copied, so now running the refresher will not copy files because it thinks it is putting older files on your machine.
check out this KB Article I think it will help:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q322170
DanW
June 18, 2002 at 12:08 pm
I'm not 100%, but I'm pretty sure that sqlserver sp2 installs mdac 2.71.
You might want to try installing the latest version of the mdac.
Tom Goltl
June 18, 2002 at 2:09 pm
To danw: I believe the version number for SQL Server is saved in the SQL system files, not in the local registry of the active node. For this reason, I don't believe that the version will change depending on the node that is currently active. BTW, thanks for the KB article, this should help a lot in troubleshooting the problem.
To alpha333: I read the MDAC SP2 refresher release file, and it said it was the same release as SQL Server 2000 SP2. I have had to fix a machine that had newer MDAC client files than the server file versions for their SQL. That problem was, by far, one of the most annoying problems I had to fix for SQL Server.
Thanks for the input so far. Hopefully I can fix this without causing any problems with the SQL Server itself. Any other suggestion are more than welcome.
Eric S.
June 18, 2002 at 2:28 pm
I was refering to the MDAC Version not the SQL Version...
MDAC Released with SQL Server SP2 Version 2.62.7926.1
MDAC Released with MDAC 2.6 SP2 Refresh Version 2.62.7400.1
Notice that the MDAC 2.6 SP2 Refresh has a lower version number than the same files that were shipped with SQL SP2. MDAC has always been really picky about allowing you to downgrade, but upgrades usually install fine. I think the suggestion to go to a newer version of MDAC may be a good idea (If your environment will support the newer version), this way it won't be confused by Microsoft's versioning issue. Otherwise you may have to handle this the nasty way and rip out all the MDAC files and registry settings before a reinstall.
Let me know how it goes,
Dan
June 18, 2002 at 3:26 pm
I found some relatively interesting information. I used the MS Component checker on both of the nodes, and it shows version 2.62.7926.1 on both nodes. It turns out the files I was looking at were in the c:\winnt\system32\dllcache directory. The version in c:\winnt\system32\ are the same on both nodes. As a result, it seems that I have hit a dead end. Aside from the previously mentioned difference, there aren't any differences between the nodes that I can detect. The only way I can even tell if there is still a problem is if the cluster is failed over again, which won't happen for a while. I guess I'll have to put this problem on pause for a while, unless someone may know more about the previously mentioned symptoms.
Thanks,
Eric S.
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