Unity Does Not Start up Automatically

[dtran]

I am running Unity 4.0.3 SR1 with Exchange 2k offbox and Unity failover. I changed the IP address on the failover server and shipped it to DR site, I now have it up online in DR site but for reasons Unity does not start up automatically at startup I have to login to the server to start it manually and all was working fine before I ship it.

has anybody seen this issue before ? am I missing something ?

the only that was changed was the IP address. I changed it to the DR network.

I am trying to bring it up online and make sure all is working before configuring failover. So failover has not been configured on neither servers (primary or secondary)

Thanks ! any help is appreciated !!!

Danny

[lindborg]

The place to start is the application event log - when you start your server, Unity should load automatically assuming you have your services configured for Automatic (which they are by default). If Unity fails to start, you will see warnings/errors in the application event log during it's startup process - this should give you a clue as to what's happening to trip up the startup process. Could be something up stream from us (i.e. SQL not starting or IIS having a problem).

[Ginger Dillon]

Hi -

I'm curious and could be off-base here, but I'm wondering if you are having a problem with licensing? Could you have used the other NIC's MAC address when you installed the Unity server in the DR site? Or if using NIC teaming in adaptive/fault tolerant mode, not used the MAC of the team that matches your Unity lic file(s)?

Ginger

[dtran]

Hello Ginger ! I am not using NIC teaming I am using only one NIC with the default license file that came with installation. This is the failover server the license files will get replicated once the Failover Wizard is ran. And the application event log looks clean no error. The weird thing is if I right click on Unity system tray icon and start it manually it works fine. It just wouldn't start automatically at startup. It wouldn't even try to start up I get the red X right away. And I already re-ran the Permission Wizard and all looks fine no errors.

Thanks Ginger !!! Thanks Jeff !!!

Danny

[lindborg]

Well, if Unity isn't even trying to start according to the event log then you likely don't have the services in the SCM set to automatic - that's the only thing that would cause Unity to not even try to startup and log absolutely nothing to the event log...

[dtran]

Hello Jeff ! I think the issue is related to MSSQLSERVER. I am seeing errors in the system log related to MSSqlServer, it said " MSSQLServer service failed to start due to the following error: The account name is invalid, or Does not exist, or the password is invalid for the account specified "

and is causing the following services not to start

AvSqlChangeWriter

AvLic

AvDSGlobalCatalog

AvDSAD

AvDirChangeWriter

AvCsGateway

SqlServerAgent

but the SQLServer icon on the system tray is showing SQLServer is running as well as in SCM.

any other ideas ?

thanks Jeff !!

Danny

[dtran]

Hello Jeff ! Based on the system event log I think the problem is due to the delay in authentication with the Domain Controller. I am seeing an error message in system log saying "No Windows NT or Windows 2000 Domain controller is available for Domain xx.The following error occurred: There are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request."

but MSSqlServer still starts up just a bit slower compare to when I had the server on the same local LAN as the Domain Controller and once MSSqlServer starts I can manually startup Unity.

Any workaround Jeff ?

Thanks !!

Danny

[lindborg]

In the SCM on the recovery tab you should be able to force the services to try and restart themselves after the first/second/subsequent failures - I've never tried this out since the solution would normally be to figure out why the login is taking so long in the first place... but it should work and just take longer to come up.

[dtran]

The login actually doesn't take long I have a full DS3 link between the two sites... all was working fine when I had both servers on the same local LAN. This issue starts to occur when I moved the failover server over to the DR site, I can see SQLServer takes a bit longer to start up but Unity didn't even try to start up at all I get the red x on Unity system tray icon as soon as I loged in and once SQLServer started I can start Unity manually and all is fine.

And by default not all Unity services are set to start up automatically. I have checked on my Unity primary server as well my Unity lab server.

Do you think this might be a Windows domain issue ?

Thanks Jeff !!!

Danny

[Ginger Dillon]

Hi Danny -

Just saw your recent posts. I am including a Microsoft link for your review - http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=193888

However, I would confer with Cisco TAC on this for Unity support before attempting on your failover server. But I can tell you I have done this successfully on a different (not Unity) server before, where a service was attempting to start before another could completely finish. I was able to "create" a service dependency relationship that effectively delayed startup of the problem service. This might be of interest to you and something you could test on a lab server?

Ginger

[dtran]

Hello Ginger / Jeff !

The issue has been resolved. The issue was related to the switchport setting, Spanning Tree was disable on the swichport. Once I enable Spanning Tree Portfast on the switchport and rebooted the server all services start up normally.

Thanks Jeff and Ginger for all your help !!!

Danny