Version

All

Date

6 Nov 2007

Summary

Performing the Argent installation may yield an error message: “Could not save Network Group ‘the Argent AIX Server Pool’ into database.”

Technical Background

This is related to a Veritas Cluster issue due to a naming misconfiguration.

Overview

Log shipping is the process of automating the backup of database and transaction log files on a production SQL server and restoring them onto a standby server.

Transaction logs are backed up logs throughout the day so that they can be automatically restored on the standby server.

This in effect keeps the two SQL Servers synchronized so that, if the production server fails, you only need to point users to the new server.

Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) supports log shipping with SME/SnapDrive.

Playback occurs following the failover with an up to one minute restore time.

Microsoft has identified potential issues with log shipping with SQL Server when deployed from a disk image (See Microsoft knowledgebase article 818334).

Error Description

If you run the following query on the server being used as a backup in a log shipping environment, the system displays conflicting results for the @@ServerName and the ServerName within the Server property specification:

SELECT @@SERVERNAME, SERVERPROPERTY(‘ServerName’)

NRTAPPSQL001 NRTAPPSQL03

The problem is that SQL Server is returning the name of the server instead of the cluster in this query. Since the data resides in the virtual cluster, as opposed to the physical server, SQL commands using this server name will fail.

Resolution

Perform the following activities in order and then rerun the above query to ensure that the log shipping server returns the correct server name.

1. Create an outage to restart SQL.
2. Run the following script using the appropriate cluster name:

   sp_dropserver ‘NRTAPPSQL001’

   sp_dropserver ‘NRTAPPSQL03’

   sp_addserver ‘NRTAPPSQL03′,’Local’

3. Restart SQL.

Once the Veritas Cluster is properly configured and the SQL Service has been restarted, the Argent Installation should work correctly.