Microsoft KB Archive/831365

= BUG: The Status of Notification Services Components Remains &quot;Enable Pending&quot; on a Windows Cluster =

PSS ID Number: 831365

Article Last Modified on 12/2/2003

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Notification Services 2.0.2114.0
 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Notification Services 2.0 SP1

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SQL Server 9.0:549959



SYMPTOMS
After you install Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Notification Services 2.0 (version 2.0.2114.0) or Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Notification Services 2.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1) (version 2.0.3008.0) on a Microsoft Windows cluster, the Notification Services components (such as event providers, generators, and Distributors) may be in the Enable pending status. However, in Cluster Administrator, the status of the generic service for Notification Service may be Online.

In Cluster Administrator, if you initiate a failover of the generic service for Notification Services 2.0, the generic service may start successfully on the other node. However, the Notification Services components may still be in the Enable pending status. Additionally, there may not be any error messages logged by Notification Services 2.0 in the event log. This problem may cause both cluster nodes not to process any notification batches.



CAUSE
This problem occurs because of a mismatch between the local computer name and the system name. The system name is the name of the computer that is used by the Notification Services logical components that are provided in the Application Definition File (ADF). When Notification Services 2.0 starts, it compares the local computer name with the system name for each logical component. If the local computer name matches the logical component's system name, the logical component is changed from the Enable Pending status to the Started status. If the local computer name does not match the logical component's system name, the logical component status is not updated to Started. When Notification Services is running on a Windows cluster, Notification Services always resolves the local computer name to be the same as the Windows cluster name. Therefore, only logical components whose system name matches the Windows cluster name are assigned the Started status.



WORKAROUND
To work around the problem, the system name of the logical components that run on the Windows cluster must be set to match the Windows cluster name. You must first verify that the system name matches the Windows cluster name, and then run the NSControl Update command to synchronize any changes in the Notification Services instance and application databases. For more information about NSControl Update, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sqlntsv/htm/ns_nscontrol_8hyr.asp



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed in the &quot;Applies to&quot; section of this article.



MORE INFORMATION
Assume that you are working with a two-node Windows cluster that has the following configuration:
 * Node 1 of the Windows cluster is named NS1.
 * Node 2 of the Windows cluster is named NS2.
 * The Windows cluster name is NSCluster.
 * The virtual SQL Server name is SQLCluster.
 * All the Notification Services logical components are configured to run on the cluster.
 * The system name for all the logical components in the ADF is set to a parameter that is named NSHost.

Consider the following scenarios:
 * Scenario 1: NSHost = &quot;NSCluster&quot; This configuration is successful because NSHost is set to match the Windows cluster name NSCluster.
 * Scenario 2: NSHost = &quot;NS1&quot; This configuration is not successful because NSHost points to the physical node name of Node 1, NS1, and then Notification Services resolves the local computer name to NSCluster.
 * Scenario 3: NSHost = &quot;SQLCluster&quot; This configuration is not successful because NSHost points to the virtual SQL Server name, and then Notification Services resolves the local computer name to NSCluster.

