Microsoft KB Archive/179472

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PRB: Can't Write to Cluster Registry in Online or Arbitrate

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Q179472

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Win32 Software Development Kit (SDK)
 * Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition version 4.0

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SYMPTOMS
Quorum device resource DLLs cannot write to the cluster database from either the Arbitrate or Online entry points. Calls that attempt to write to the cluster database fail with error 70 (ERROR_SHARING_PAUSED).

CAUSE
When a quorum resource is called for Arbitrate or Online, the cluster database is "in doubt." Anything that is read may be stale and anything that is written may be thrown away. So, the cluster API does not let you write to the cluster registry at this point. It does let you read from the registry, with the caveat that you may be reading stale data.

STATUS
This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION
The quorum resource stores configuration data to avoid a loss of information if the nodes in a cluster are not online at the same time. Specifically, if changes are made to the cluster configuration while node A is down, and node B goes down before node A starts, any changes not stored in a place available to node A are lost.

In this situation, node A checks the quorum resource to see if it has recorded any changes to the cluster configuration. If changes were made, the changes are applied to node A's copy of the cluster database. Since the reference copy of the configuration cannot be checked until the quorum resource is online, the cluster service does not allow write access to the cluster database from calls that are used to make the quorum resource available.

Additional query words: MSCS

Keywords : kbOSWinNT400 kbSDKWin32 _IK kbcluster

Issue type : kbprb

Technology : kbWinNTsearch kbWinNT400xsearch kbWinNTSsearch kbWinNTSEntSearch kbWinNTSEnt400 kbWinNTS400xsearch kbWin32SDKSearch kbAudDeveloper kbSDKSearch kbWin32sSearch