Problem with Cluster replication

Hi, I recently took over a Domino network that has Server A and Server B as a cluster. Now both servers have two seperate network cards, one for normal use, and the other solely for the cluster replications.

The problem is that Server A replicates normally with Server B, while Server B cannot replicate with Server A. Even when I try a trace on the server, it resolves its cluster IP address, but always shows that server is not responding.

Now both servers have a connection document for each other and both are set to replicate on the cluster IP address. If I ping Server A from Server B (Windows wise) it works without a hitch.

Any help on where to start looking would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Subject: Notes Domino Networking

To help you out, I’ll provide some of the basics of configuring Domino ports and the tools used to verify connections and collect information about problems. Note that instructions for using a private lan for cluster replication are provided in the Admin help!

First, Notes and Domino can be configured with multiple Notes Ports (this is not the same as a TCPIP port). Separate Notes ports are used to communicate using different networking technologies or within the same technology (such as TCPIP) separate Notes ports are used to bind to different listening addresses.

Secondly, you mention that you are using one of your network cards for cluster replication and the other for normal traffic. Let’s make sure you got that right:

You need to first define two Notes ports. By default a port that is not bound to an address will listen on all addresses. So, if for example you had two network cards and one Notes port that is not bound to an address, all works well. The one port will listen on all addresses.

In your case I think you want to have two notes ports. Each one should be bound to the IP address of one of the network cards. You do this using the Notes.ini parameter →

_tcpipaddress=0,[:]

Have you created 2 Notes ports and bound them to the addresses of your 2 network cards?

Next, you need to tell cluster replication to use one of these ports for cluster replication. You can either re-order the ports so that the cluster replication port is first or you can tell cluster replication to use its port using this notes.ini →

Server_Cluster_Default_Port=Cluster Port

Now, to verify that all is well, you use ping first to detemrine if the base network is working and then use the Domino trace trace command to determine if the Domino servers are working, but what you reported in your note wasn’t actually detailed enough to know what you did.

First you want to ping the cluster replication network card on server A from server B. Did you do that or did you only ping sefrver A’s host name?

Next you want to do a trace on server Bs Domino console to server A. And since you have two ports you need to use the following syntax for the trace command (clearly shown in the help output). I assume that your cluster replication cards are on a private lan to prevent Notes client traffic from using them, right? So, you should expect connections from the public port to the private port on the other server to fail! Test all 4 combinations - i.e. from each of your local ports to each of the 2 ip addresses on the other server. Two of the tests should work and 2 should fail.

TRACE PORTS

If you are still having trouble, post notes.ini for both servers and the output from the trace commands.

Subject: Still having problems

Hi there, a big thanks for your time and for providing that information.

I took a look at both your settings and the ones found in the domino admin help.

And did some minor changes, mainly in the names. This is my current setup:

Server A - Server Document

Port Protocol Notes Network Net Address Enabled

TCPIP TCP TCPIP Network 192.168.68.2 Enabled

GSPCluster Cluster Network 192.168.135.1 Enabled

Server A - Notes.ini

TCPIP=TCP, 0, 15, 0

GSPCluster_TCPIPAddress=0,192.168.135.1:1352

TCPIP_TCPIPAddress=0,192.168.68.2

Server B - Server Document

Port Protocol Notes Network Net Address Enabled

TCPIP TCP TCPIP Network serverb.domain.lan Enabled

GSPCluster Cluster Network 192.168.135.2 Enabled

Server B - Notes.ini

TCPIP=TCP, 0, 15, 0

GSPCluster_TCPIPAddress=0,192.168.135.2:1352

TCPIP_TCPIPAddress=0,192.168.68.4


So pinging A to B and B to A (Windows, both Normal and Cluster IPs) works. In my post I said that Server A could trace Server B, but I was wrong. I tried the traces again and both servers respond to the trace on the normal network port, but none on the cluster port.

Both servers restarted after settings were changed.

Thanks for the help!

Subject: did you try netstat?

Try the windows tool “netstat -an” and check if domino listens on both network cards.Next try to connect locally to both IPs your servers have using “telnet 192.168.135.1 1352”. If you are not getting an error message, you are fine.

Now try connecting to the cluster mate using telnet again, if this fails after anything else was fine, you are experiencing some network/firewall problem.

Subject: An update

Tried the netstat command and from what I’m seeing here, Domino is not listening on the private lan port 1352. Its listening on 192.168.68.1:1352 but not on 192.168.135.1:1352

Are there any other settings I am missing to make Domino listen on both network cards?

Thanks

Subject: Resolved

It seems I was missing the Cluster Port from Tools > Server > Setup Ports. Added that port and both servers started listening on the Cluster ports

Thanks for the help