CLU-Server Clusters and Failover Clustering
Description
Troubleshooting methodologies for cluster issues, whether in Windows 2003 or Windows 2008, are fairly similar. Most of the typical support issues in the cluster category fall under the following categories:
· Cluster Service fails to start.
· Cluster resources in a failed state or fail to come online.
· Determine root cause of cluster failure.
· Initial configuration of the cluster.
Scoping the Issue
The system event log is the first place to look for errors generated by the cluster service. In Windows 2003, those errors will show a source of ‘clussvc.exe’ . In Windows 2008, the source generating the event is WindowsFailoverClustering. Important information from the system event log that is relevant in troubleshooting are things like:
· Which resource(s) are failing?
· What was the first event generated in an outage scenario?
· Are there any signs of performance issues on or around the time of the failure? These are typically indicated by event ID 2019’s, 2021’s, and 2020’s.?
Data Gathering
The new Microsoft MPS Reporting Utility will gather all of the information a Microsoft engineer needs to initially troubleshoot a cluster issue. This utility can be downloaded at the following link: Microsoft Product Support Reports
Steps to generate the report.
1. Download the appropriate version for the operating system (x86 or x64) under the ‘Files in This Download’ section.
2. Select [Run] from the pop-up
3. Select ‘I agree’, then [Next]
4. If you are running this utility on the server experiencing the problem and this server has Internet connectivity, choose [This Computer]. If running this utility on a client machine to gather the data from a computer that does not have Internet connectivity, select [Another Computer]
5. For troubleshooting Windows Failover Cluster issues, select both [General] and [Server Components] in the ‘Select the diagnostics you want to run’. Click [Next].
6. When the report gathering completes, select the [Save the results] option.
7. Save the file to a place that will be easy to transfer to a Microsoft Support Professional. Depending on the resultant size of the file. Microsoft may either create a file transfer workspace for upload or add as an e-mail attachment.