PRB: Postback Fails If CMS Server Keys Are Not Synchronized (814878)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Content Management Server 2002
Microsoft Content Management Server 2001
Microsoft Content Management Server 2001 SP1
Microsoft Content Management Server 2001 SRP2

SYMPTOMS

If you try to perform a data postback to a Content Management Server (CMS) Web cluster, and there is more than one CMS server set up in the cluster, the data postback to the server may fail. The cluster is joined by Microsoft Application Center with the affinity setting set to none.

CAUSE

This issue occurs because the machine keys for the CMS servers in the Web farm are not synchronized.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, you must synchronize the machine keys for the CMS servers by using the ManageKey.exe utility. To do so, follow these steps:

Select the server that will be the master server.
On the master server, double-click the ManageKey.exe file that is located in the CMS_ROOT\Server\Bin folder.
Export the machine key.
Import the machine key to each server in the Web farm or Web cluster. To do so, run the ManageKey.exe utility on each server.
After you import the machine key to the server, restart the server.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

To maintain state in a Web farm, CMS requires a machine key that is the same on each machine. This key is embedded in each request for CMS resources. If this key is different on each computer, CMS cannot correctly interpret the request. If CMS cannot interpret the request, postback failures and broken images may result.

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	8/19/2005
Keywords:	kbprb KB814878 kbAudDeveloper