Microsoft KB Archive/258518

= RPC Unavailable Error Appears When You Try to Access a Cluster Server =

Article ID: 258518

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition

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This article was previously published under Q258518



SYMPTOMS
When you try to access the Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) through the cluster administrator, the following error message may appear:

An Error occurred trying to open the cluster at 'cluster_name'

The RPC Server is unavailable

Error ID: 1722 (000006ba)



CAUSE
This behavior can occur for many reasons. The following is a list of some of the possible causes:


 * Computer specified is not a cluster server.
 * Network connection is down.
 * Cluster nodes are reporting errors
 * Cluster group is off-line.
 * Cluster service on the target system stopped.



RESOLUTION
To resolve this behavior, check to make sure the computer you are connecting to is actually a cluster server. If the cluster group has been taken off-line or paused for a soft rollover, connecting to the node name allows you to bring the resource group back online. If all other attempts to open the cluster administrator fail, specify a "." character from one of the cluster nodes when asked which cluster to administer. By specifying the "." character, the node that you are logged on to will search itself for the cluster service.



MORE INFORMATION
MSCS uses remote procedure calls (RPC) and requires that the RPC service be running on both systems. Check to make sure that the RPC service is running on both systems and that the system event logs on each server do not have any RPC-related errors.

Ensure that the server is operational and that both the Cluster Service and the RPC services are running. Also, check the name resolution of the cluster; it is possible that you are using the wrong name or that the name is not being properly resolved by WINS or DNS.

