Microsoft KB Archive/258469

= Cluster Service May Not Start After You Restrict Available IP Ports for Remote Procedure Call =

Article ID: 258469

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

-

APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
 * Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition

-



This article was previously published under Q258469



IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry



SYMPTOMS
When you restrict the available Internet Protocol (IP) ports that are available for remote procedure call (RPC) dynamic port allocation by adding the DCOM Internet key in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\RPC registry key, the Cluster service may not start or you may not be able to remotely connect to the Cluster service by using Cluster Administrator. This problem typically occurs if the Cluster nodes are separated by a firewall. When the Cluster service on a node starts, it first tries to contact one of the other nodes in the Cluster through RPC. The following events may be seen in the system log: 1009 ClusSvc "The Clustering Service could not join an existing cluster and could not form a new cluster. The Clustering Service has terminated."

7031 Service Control Manager "The Cluster Service service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this  time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in   milliseconds: Restart the service."

1070 ClusSvc "The node failed to begin the process of joining the cluster. The error code was 1721."

You may see the following messages in the cluster log:

[JOIN] Sponsor 10.0.0.1 is not available (JoinVersion), status=1753.

[JOIN] JoinVersion data for sponsor 10.0.0.1 is invalid, status 1753.

[JOIN] Sponsor ServerName is not available (JoinVersion), status=1753.

[JOIN] JoinVersion data for sponsor ServerName is invalid, status 1753.

[JOIN] Sponsor 192.168.0.1 is not available (JoinVersion), status=1753.

[JOIN] JoinVersion data for sponsor 192.168.0.1 is invalid, status 1753.

[JOIN] Spawning thread to connect to sponsor 192.168.0.1

[JOIN] Asking 192.168.0.1 to sponsor us.

[JOIN] Waiting for all connect threads to terminate.

[JOIN] Sponsor 192.168.0.1 is not available (JoinVersion), status=1722.

[JOIN] JoinVersion data for sponsor 192.168.0.1 is invalid, status 1722.

[JOIN] All connect threads have terminated.

[JOIN] Unable to connect to any sponsor node. [INIT] Failed to join cluster, status 53

You may also encounter error 1721 when you try to start Cluster Administrator.



CAUSE
This behavior can occur when the range of available IP ports that the Cluster service uses to initiate communication through RPCs is too small. The Cluster service relies heavily on RPC to function properly. If there are not enough ports available, the Cluster service cannot communicate.



RESOLUTION
WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

To resolve this behavior, make a minimum of 20 ports available in the defined range of available ports. For example, the following registry entry has 20 ports available in the defined port range:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\RPC\Internet

Ports: REG_MULTI_SZ: 8011-8031

PortsInternetAvailable: REG_SZ: Y

UseInternetPorts: REG_SZ: Y



MORE INFORMATION
It is best to have 50-100 ports available, because many other services use DCOM ports in the dynamic range (1025-65000, everything below 1025 is a pre-defined port). Examples of other services that use dynamic ports include Domain Name System (DNS), Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS), and Microsoft SQL Server.

