We are attempting a migration from Windows Server Std 2003 R2 to Windows Server Std 2008 R2. On the 2003 installation, we have two baremetal installations running with the following redundancy strategy:
Both servers run host active directory, dns, dhcp (split-scope), file sharing, print sharing and other applications needed for a small business. Using DFS Replication, data is replicated in real time between servers.
Of the two servers, (let's call them Node1 and Node2, with IPs 192.168.0.33 and 192.168.0.34) one is designated the "active" server and the other is designated the "standby" server. Clients only connect to the active server to prevent file version conflicts across the DFS Replication group. The active server is made active by adding a second IP address on the lone NIC (192.168.0.1). A static A record ("cluster") is added to the DNS which resolves to the secondary IP address, 192.168.0.1. This is sort of a poor-man's high availability cluster. If the active server goes offline for whatever reason, the standby server can be made active simply by applying the secondary IP address (192.168.0.1) to it. Clients would then connect to the alternate server with only a couple minutes of down-time (and not even a need to restart).
This strategy has worked well for us on Server 2003 R2. However, upon migrating to Server 2008 R2, we discovered a problem with the print server. Apparently, the print spooler doesn't intentionally support this configuration, where clients can connect to printers via an A-record and secondary IP address. (See http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverprint/thread/1f6af4e6-3388-4b11-8953-e36f7383e7eb.) However, the print spooler is supposed to support connection via a CNAME (let's say "Printers") to the primary hostname (Node1 or Node2).
The problem is, when a secondary IP address is added to the network connection, connection to printers via the CNAME fails.
We have added the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print DnsOnWire=0x00000001 registry value as well as the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\LanmanServer\Parameters\ DisableStrictNameChecking=0x00000001 registry value. The one configuration difference between our 2003 R2 installation and the new 2008 R2 installation is that the 2003 R2 included a WINS service, where the 2008 R2 does not. I don't know if this should/does have any effect.
Why has the functionality we rely on been broken? We cannot migrate our systems to 2008 R2 until this problem is resolved.
Both servers run host active directory, dns, dhcp (split-scope), file sharing, print sharing and other applications needed for a small business. Using DFS Replication, data is replicated in real time between servers.
Of the two servers, (let's call them Node1 and Node2, with IPs 192.168.0.33 and 192.168.0.34) one is designated the "active" server and the other is designated the "standby" server. Clients only connect to the active server to prevent file version conflicts across the DFS Replication group. The active server is made active by adding a second IP address on the lone NIC (192.168.0.1). A static A record ("cluster") is added to the DNS which resolves to the secondary IP address, 192.168.0.1. This is sort of a poor-man's high availability cluster. If the active server goes offline for whatever reason, the standby server can be made active simply by applying the secondary IP address (192.168.0.1) to it. Clients would then connect to the alternate server with only a couple minutes of down-time (and not even a need to restart).
This strategy has worked well for us on Server 2003 R2. However, upon migrating to Server 2008 R2, we discovered a problem with the print server. Apparently, the print spooler doesn't intentionally support this configuration, where clients can connect to printers via an A-record and secondary IP address. (See http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverprint/thread/1f6af4e6-3388-4b11-8953-e36f7383e7eb.) However, the print spooler is supposed to support connection via a CNAME (let's say "Printers") to the primary hostname (Node1 or Node2).
The problem is, when a secondary IP address is added to the network connection, connection to printers via the CNAME fails.
We have added the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print DnsOnWire=0x00000001 registry value as well as the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\LanmanServer\Parameters\ DisableStrictNameChecking=0x00000001 registry value. The one configuration difference between our 2003 R2 installation and the new 2008 R2 installation is that the 2003 R2 included a WINS service, where the 2008 R2 does not. I don't know if this should/does have any effect.
Why has the functionality we rely on been broken? We cannot migrate our systems to 2008 R2 until this problem is resolved.