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Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 67
Chapter 10 Troubleshooting
Two Passive Servers
PrimaryandSecondaryserversarebothpassiveatthesametime.Thissituationisseriousandmustbe
resolvedimmediately.
Symptom
Youareunabletoconnecttoprotectedapplications,andifyouconfiguredalerts,youreceivenotificationthat
replicationisnotfunctioningproperly.
Causes
Theconditionoftwopassiveserversresultsfromasuddenfailureontheactiveserver.Examples:
AnunexpectedterminationoftheNeverfailServerR2service
Atransientpowerfailure
AserverresettriggeredfromthePowerorResetbutton
Anuncleanshutdown.Followinganuncleanshutdown,anactiveserverassumesthepassiveroleto
isolateitselffromthenetworkuntilthefailureisinvestigated.
TheactiveserverfailsbeforethehandshakethatestablishestheVMwareChannelconnection.Thepassive
servercannotdetectthattheactiveserverisnotrespondingwhenthefailureoccursandcannotdetermine
theconditionoftheactiveserver.Theactiveserversuffersatransientfailureandthepassiveservercannot
respond
byfailingoverintotheactiverole,leavingbothserversinthepassiverole.
BothPrimaryandSecondaryserversexperienceapoweroutagesimultaneously,forexample,theyusethe
samepowersourceandneitherisattachedtoaUPS.Afailovercannotoccurandwhentheserversare
restarted,eachdisplaysthefollowingerrormessage:
Cannot start replication because previous run did not shutdown properly. Check configuration.
Resolution
Twopassiveserverspreventusersfromaccessingtheprotectedapplicationandshouldberesolved
immediately.
To resolve two passive servers
1 Determinetheactiveserver.
2ShutdownvCenterServerHeartbeatonbothservers.Leaveanyprotectedapplicationsrunningonthe
servertomakeactive.
3Ontheservertomakeactive,starttheServerConfigurationwizard,andselectthe
activerole.Donot
changetheidentity(PrimaryorSecondary).
4Ontheservertomakepassive,starttheServerConfigurationwizard,andconfirmthepassiveserver.Do
notchangetheidentity(PrimaryorSecondary).
5Restartthepassiveserver.Allprotectedapplicationservicesstop.
6StartvCenterServerHeartbeatonbothservers.
N
OTEIfyouattempttostartvCenterServerHeartbeatwithoutreconfiguringoneserverinthepairasactive,
vCenterServerHeartbeatrespondswiththefollowingwarning:
[U16] Serious configuration mismatch between the two servers. Please reconfigure so there is one
and only one Primary, and one and only one Active.