During one of my consulting engagement about Always On availability group configuration, I found that listener network name was not coming online. As a rule of thumb, I always generate cluster log for any error related to cluster. SQL SERVER – Steps to Generate Windows Cluster Log?
Here is the information in the cluster log. I have removed the timestamp column to make it readable.
DBG [RHS] Resource SQLAUTH-PRODAG_SQLAUTH-LISTENER called SetResourceStatusEx: checkpoint 2. Old state OnlinePending, new state OnlinePending, AppSpErrorCode 0, Flags 0, nores=false
ERR [RES] Network Name: [NNLIB] Unable to add server name SQLAUTH-LISTENER to transport \Device\NetBt_If4, status 2
INFO [RES] Network Name : Netbios: Registered Name: SQLAUTH-LISTENER into Netbios (Type: Singleton), result: 2 (0 transports registered)
INFO [RES] Network Name : Netbios: Slow Operation, FinishWithReply: 2
INFO [RES] Network Name : Netbios: End of Slow Operation, state: Initializing/Idle, prevWorkState: Idle
INFO [RES] Network Name: Agent: OnInitializeReply, Failure on (1dac30da-a46a-4c44-923b-d428c6329d6d,Netbios): 2
I look for ERR in cluster log and here is the error which we can see above.
Unable to add server name SQLAUTH-LISTENER to transport \Device\NetBt_If4, status 2
Status 2 indicates: The system cannot find the file specified”. My search for “NetBt” was pointing to issue with “NetBIOS over TCPIP” setting
WORKAROUND/SOLUTION
When we checked Network Name resource properties, we saw “The system cannot find the file specified.” for NetBIOS status. Now to clear that, I looked at IP address resource and unchecked NetBIOS related setting as shown below.
If you want to change that setting a NIC level, then you can follow my earlier blog.
After fixing above, we were able to bring listener online.
Let me know if you have ever faced similar error with windows cluster log. I would like to know your opinion and workaround as well. Remember sharing is the caring.
Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)
