Windows Cluster DNS Error Event ID 1260 - DNS bad key

Question

Hello Everyone,

I am working on creating a Window Failover Cluster for a SQL AOAG. Current setup is two Nodes and one File Share Witness.
Both Nodes have two NICs, connected to two separate Networks that need to be registered in the cluster.
When I run the Configuration Check Validation test, everything looks good on the cluster.

I see this error in the Cluster Events happening every 15 minutes on the active node:

Event ID: 1260
Cluster network name resource failed to modify the DNS registration.
Cluster Network name: 'Cluster Name'
Error code: 'DNS bad key.
'
Guidance:
Ensure that the network adapters associated with dependent IP address resources are configured with access to at least one DNS server.

The cluster is successfully creating an A record in the DNS server for one of the Networks, but not the other.
If I create the second record manually on the DNS server, it is removed after that 15 minute cycle creating the error entry.

Why is the cluster only able to create one (1) A record and not the other?
The record created is always for the same network, why?

I've searched online extensively for a solution, but almost everyone else seeing a similar issue is with a different event ID than mine.
Still tried every single suggestion but nothing has fixed the problem for me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Hello

Thank you for your question and reaching out. I can understand you are having issues related to Event ID 1260 - DNS bad key in Cluster.

The error “DNS bad key” is more often rather than the other error. The issue can be fixed after applying the following steps:

Right click the Windows button – Click Run.
Run following command to enter Network Connections.
ncpa.cpl
Go to Properties of the network adapter that you are using for Microsoft Failover Cluster.
Go to Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) – Advanced – DNS tab.
Deselect the Register this connection’s addresses in DNS.

Finally, repair your cluster name resource by bringing it offline via the Failover Cluster Manager and then running the repair operation (under More Actions in the same menu).

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Answer 2

Lots of recommendations found online pointed to taking the cluster resource offline, perform a repair, and bring back online.
This unfortunately was not an option for me since it is a production environment and the downtime would be unacceptable.

Keeping that idea in mind, I did the following to fix the issue:

• Removed the problematic IP Address configuration from the Cluster configuration
• Added back the same IP Address settings

Whatever the issue was in the configuration must've gotten overwritten.
DNS record was created successfully and no more errors displayed in the cluster events.

Wish I was able to find the cause of the problem, but at least found a solution to it.
Hope this helps someone else dealing with a similar issue.

Answer 3

Thanks for the suggestion @Limitless Technology
That would definitely get rid of the error, but I actually needed to register the connection in our DNS server.