Unity Failover Wizard fails at SQL Replication

[clebarron]

We have Unity 4.0.4, the primary server is up with all the licenses installed and the failover wizard ran and passed successfully. The secondary server was up and running but after we ran the failover wizard and it failed at SQL Replication, unity is now not running and we cannot get it to start, Any ideas?? We rebooted the server, checked SQL and all seems fine but unity still will not start and we tried re-running the failover wizard but get the same SQL Rep. error.

[mrmccann]

It would be helpful if you posted the specific error you are seeing while running Failover Configuration Wizard.

[clebarron]

We get popup boxes three times during the wizard that say

Failed to setup SQL Replication

Then the wizard completes and says failover was successfully setup on the server, but unity won't startup anymore.

I put in a tac case, but thought I'd see if anyone had any ideas. The case is set for priority 3 because it is our test environment so there really isn't any down service at this time.

[Tommer Catlin]

4.04 is horrible at setting up SQL replication. You usually have to try and install about 5 times before it works. Uninstall Failover from both and try it again. Make sure you have DNS and WINS correctly, even edit your LMhost file to include the machine names IP-hostname so SQL can resolve the name asap. Otherwise it will continue to fail.

If it all possible, upgrade to 4.2 and run it, or at least 4.05 SP1 with engineer fixes.

cheers

[JimSJ]

I would definitely concur with others that recommend a newer version than 4.0.4, but if you can't go with that, try this:

1.Start>Programs>Microsoft SQL Server>Client Network Utility 2.Under General tab, confirmed that Enables protocols by order included TCP/IP and Named Pipes 3. Under Alias, clicked on Add button, Put the machine name of Secondary Unity into "Server Alias", then click OK Repeat above from Secondary Unity and put the machine name of Primary used in step 3.

I have had this fix failover SQL errors several times.

Hope this helps,

Jim

[clebarron]

TAC looked into it and said that the Unity app on the secondary server must be corrupted and that is why it fails, we are in the process of rebuilding the secondary server, I have tried to get a hold of the engineer to ask this question but may be I'll get a reply from someone here quicker.

How important is it to install SQL and Unity on the same drive? Reason I ask is we have installed SQL on drive C on both servers and Unity on drive D on both, they match but I was just wondering if this could be a problem, if so we will have to rebuild the primary?? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

[ranpierce]

The most important thing here is that the sql logs don't fill the c drive if you installed there. Move the logs to the d drive

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_unity/unity40/maint/maint405/ex/mg_0600.htm#wp1069104

Managing the Location of Log Files and Database Files

The way in which logical drives on the Cisco Unity server are partitioned and what content is located on the drives depends on the size of the Cisco Unity system, the RAID volume configuration used, whether the system will be installed as Voice Messaging Only (VM) or as Unified Messaging (UM), and whether Exchange is used on-box or off-box.

The partition and drive content recommendations from the Cisco Unity Installation Guide should continue to be followed when maintaining your system.

[clebarron]

Well we went ahead and put SQL on the same drive as Unity and placed the SQL logs and database in the recommended drives per the install guide. After all was completed on both servers, we ran the wizard and once again it failed on the failover server at SQL replication. We will continue with TAC on Monday, this did not happen in our production environment so it is so odd that we would run into it now using the same versions of everything!

[sposte]

A couple of things to check.

The 2 SQL services should be running on both servers with the same AD account with appropriate local rights as per the install doc.

The account name should be in NETBIOS form eg: "DOMAIN\accountname"

not accountname@domain.com

On both servers:

In SQL Enterprise manager unregister the generic server object (local) and reregister your server with the computer name. You should see both primary and failover server databases in the management folder tree.

Check you have netbios name resolution - the wizard relies on windows browsing to see the other server.

Also check this bug CSCee49288 - it applies to 4.1 but may also be related.