Cluster Name IP Address Failure

Question

_{Wednesday, February 1, 2012 8:04 PM}

OK let me try to give the best information I can on this, I have been beating my head against the wall for a few days now.  I have an environment that has 2 Windows 2008r2 Datacenter Edition servers.  They are running high availability clustering (here out referred to as HAC) and are hosting a file server called Files.  The SAN is attached to each of them via iSCSI and is up and functioning properly.  As far as I can tell the actual "fileserver" is clicking along (though very slow at times which I hope is related to this) without problem.  The problem I am facing is the logs are generating lots of errors because the Cluster Name is not online.  I have tried to bring it online only to have it fail because its IP is not being assigned.  Sounds like a simple DHCP problem, right, hopefully.  The setup on our network is a Cisco backbone and a windows DHCP server that is doing MAC address filtering.  The two HAC servers and the virtual fileserver they host are all running on the 10.0.210.x subnet.  When they were first configured, I ensured each of them were registered in the MAC pool and they get addresses.  The IP address for the Cluster Name, however, is failing to get an address due to what i think is a lack of its mac being registered with our DHCP server. 

I have tried to troubleshoot this by instructing the failover clustering snap in to go search for an ip, while watching my cisco and windows logs for a "rogue" or unregistered mac address to come across the wire.  I have yet to find the mac address it is trying to register with.  if i do an ipconfig -all i get a listing of all the physical addresses and one virtul address which is labeled as the virtual adapter switch.  From what i can see all of the networking is setup correctly, which is why i am so puzzled. 

I have tried to describe my problem the best i can, if I can provide further information for you to assist me please ask. 

The exact error i am getting when trying to get and IP address is: Cluster IP address resource 'Cluster IP Address' failed to obtain a leased IP address.

Rory

All replies (4)

_{Wednesday, February 1, 2012 11:18 PM}

Hi,

I don't have the silver bullet but can you confirm that your physical NIC's on the nodes CAN receive DHCP addresses? I am not suggesting you use DHCP for the nodes I am just interested to know if the DHCP client is actually listening for DHCP events.

You should check your registry on the nodes to make sure that the DisableDHCPMediaSense option is off. In Windows 2003 this was enabled by default for the physical NIC's but disabled for cluster services. Therefore you need to check both of these subkeys.

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\
Subkey DisableDHCPMediaSense

AND

HKLM\Cluster\Parameters
Subkey DisableClusSvcMediaSense

I know MS support DHCP for virtual IP's but is there a reason you don't want to use a static IP for this?

Also check this for your switches and routers - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244331

Sean Massey | Consultant, iUNITE

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Please click the Mark as Answer button if a post solves your problem!

_{Thursday, February 2, 2012 2:13 AM}

Sean, first off thanks for the reply.  I have no reservations either way on static vs dynamic addressing for this server.  I have the physical boxes and the viratual box getting its address from DHCP.  I have, however, tried to static the address for the cluster ip address and the cluster still fails to come online. 

I will check the registry settings you mentioned in the morning when i get to the office.

Thanks

Rory

_{Thursday, February 2, 2012 2:19 AM}

If you tried a static address and it still fails then we are probably wasting our time looking at those keys. What was the error(s) when using a static IP address?

Sean Massey | Consultant, iUNITE

Feel free to contact me through My Blog, Twitter or Hire Me.
Please click the Mark as Answer button if a post solves your problem!

_{Thursday, February 2, 2012 1:53 PM}

Using a static IP address i get the same error.  It is almost like it is "unplugged" which I know is not feasible for a virtual card.  Also i checked and neither of the keys you have referenced above exist on my system. 

Rory