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MSDTC and Clustering Question for Active/Active Configuration

  • April 30, 2009 at 7:50 am

    #133562

    I am wondering if I missed a step or am doing something wrong. We have two mS Server 2003 R2 EEx64 servers clustered, and we are trying to setup Active/Active. However Everytime we start up an instance on the active server that doesn't have the MSDTC Resource, Distributed Transaction Coordinator shows as "stopped" in SSMS. When I move the group back to Node A with the MSDTC resource, it shows green, when I move the Cluster Group (yes I know not best practice to have msdtc in cluster group) to Node B, DTC shows green on Node B instances but red on Node A instances. So is this because SSMS isn't being truly cluster aware, or am I missing a step somewhere to have this working properly? Enable network DTC access is checked on both nodes in windows components.. I have checked msdn, and I have seen other people experiencing similar issues but I have never seen a resolution.

    Thanks for all replies!

  • April 30, 2009 at 3:26 pm

    #987011

    Very interesting!

    I don't have an active/active to check right now. But a have a couple active/passive clusters, and have never needed to ensure SQL and MSDTC were physically running on same node. Just checked the case where SQL is active on node A and the Cluster Group (with MSDTC) is active on node B...on both nodes SSMS shows MSDTC is active. I can move the Cluster Group to the other node, nothing changes.

    What if you simplify this problem by eliminating one of the SQL cluster groups (take it offline maybe?) so now you just have a typical active/passive cluster? Do you have same problem?

    PS - I always setup MSDTC the same way as you (in the Cluster Group), and this has been true across last 3 companies, so I have to think this is widespread practice, and pretty harmless.

  • April 30, 2009 at 3:38 pm

    #987024

    I've been using the attached MSDTC security settings. Do yours vary significantly?

  • April 30, 2009 at 11:29 pm

    #987151

    I have checked one of our A/A clusters and it displays the same behaviour. A quick google provides the following from MVP Tara Kizer

    http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=124857&#489961

    Ignore the status of services in SSMS. It doesn't always show it right. To see if a service is in the proper state, use CLuster Administrator.

    Tara Kizer

    Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server

    http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

    --
    Andrew Hatfield

  • May 1, 2009 at 6:45 am

    #987243

    Yeah thats funny that was her response to my question .. 🙂 but thank you all for your reply and I will check my security settings and see if they match that .. I did run dtcping to verify proper functionality and it came back clean. I haven't had any problem with the instance on the non dtc node ... so I will just chalk it up to Taras response.

  • May 1, 2009 at 7:02 am

    #987253

    Mike .. just curious .. was there a doc that you used to change the parameters for the security config? when I checked my config the defaults did not have allow remote clients, had incoming caller authentication requires and Enable XA transactions was not checked .. Not known dtc all that well I don't really know how those settings affect sql anyway..

  • May 1, 2009 at 7:25 am

    #987282

    I can't answer, I inherited this. Might be overkill on some of the sp1+ settings? Getting anyone to comment on this was semi-ulterior motive of mine. This could have come straight from MS, or maybe was first arrangement that solved a problem.

  • May 1, 2009 at 7:35 am

    #987289

    Ahh .. I see .. I switched those settings on my dev cluster .. and I still see the same thing on the non dtc node .. oh well .. What sql are you running .. we have 2005 sp2 with no additional patches .. maybe you have a later release or patch or something that might resolve this issue?

  • May 1, 2009 at 7:41 am

    #987296

    sp2 + cumulative rollup #9, sp3 pending

  • May 1, 2009 at 7:42 am

    #987300

    What happens when you make this an active/passive cluster (by offlining one of the SQL groups)? Same behavior? Or maybe you don't have a non-prod environment in which to test this?

  • May 1, 2009 at 8:02 am

    #987320

    When I do this in Active Passive I notice no issue. Its only when I online any instance on the node that doesn't have the cluster resource group. the instances on the node with the dtc are noting it as active.

  • May 1, 2009 at 6:42 pm

    #987641

    jspatz (5/1/2009)

    Yeah thats funny that was her response to my question .. 🙂

    My bad. Google is great, but I suppose I still need to read who asked the question 🙂

    --
    Andrew Hatfield

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