Event ID 1107 and 1079 Messages Occur After You Change the Cluster Service Account Password (317232)

CAUSE

This problem can occur if you did not restart the Cluster service. You must stop and restart the Cluster service on both nodes after you change either the Cluster service account or the Cluster service password.

The Cluster service uses NTLM for all authentication processes. After the Cluster service starts on the node that is joining the cluster, the joining node's credentials are validated by a domain controller. After the node's credentials are validated on the domain, the node starts the process of joining the existing cluster. To do so, the node passes its credentials to the existing node and requests for a remote procedure call (RPC) binding to be created. During this process, the existing node's local security authority validates the credentials of the joining node with a domain controller. If the node is valid, the local security authority receives an access token (password hash) for the joining node from the domain controller. Finally, the Cluster service on the existing node validates the credentials. Because the service account is the same, the existing node compares its own token with the token of the joining node. The service account of the joining node is validated, and then allowed to join if both tokens match. However, if you do not restart the Cluster service on the existing node, the existing node still has the token that was created by using the old password. The tokens do not match and the Cluster service on the joining node reports an "Error 5 (Access Denied)" error message.

The authentication process is first attempted on the public network interface. If authentication fails, it is attempted on the private network interface. Therefore, two event ID 1107 messages are associated with the authentication failure.