Collation and Win2K3 Clustered Environment.

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MikeH - 16 Feb 2005 14:39 GMT

This past weekend I was challenged a little in resolving what I hoped was a
simple collation issue. We are running Win2K3 Ent. Clustering Services, SQL
Server 2000 Enterprise, b.8.00.760.

On Friday, 2.11, a user migrated an application to this new clustered setup
and immediately received the infamous 446 collation error.

I spent most of Friday evening and all day Saturday reviewing support topics
and news groups. I found that there was 1 issue that could be affecting us -
the build of SQL Server for Win2K3 Ent. Clustering is subtly different than
for Win2KAS Clustering - and all of my research came back to one thing: Run
rebuildm.exe and set the collation of this instance to be the same as the
existing development/production environment. The default setup on the cluster
was different than the previous production setup, as well as different than
the current development environment.

So, I backed everyone's database up, then the master objects, shut the
instance down, executed rebuild and set the collation to what I needed it to
be.

When I brought this user's database online - the same exact error occurs.

Prior to doing this, here is what we were faced with:
Development / Previous Production: Server=Win2K, SQL=SQL Server 2000
Enterprise w/Collate=SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.

The new clustered SQL=SQL Server Enterprise, w/Collate=Latin1_General_CI_AI.

The database/application in question, at the procedure where we receive the
collation error, basically calls a function that creates a temp table, then
another that pulls data for a report - however, the data is collected as a
JOIN on this tempdb temp object and a series of Views the programmer
previously setup. These views in turn hit various other static tables as well.

We were thinking that because of the collation difference on the new Win2K3
setup, as well as Collation/Locale settings differences with Win2K3
Clustering, we should at a minimum change the instance to match the
SQL_Latin1, etc. collation of development. This however, has not solved the
problem.

At this juncture, the Win2K3 Clustered server has the collation
SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AI, and the development environment (as well as
their current production environment, which is 2KAS nonclustered) is
SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS... The only difference in the two right now is
the accent sensitivity - but this should not be the issue.

If anyone else out there has any feedback, I'd be grateful for your time.

Thanks....

mhamilton"AT"nusoftsolutions"DOT"com

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Bart Duncan [MSFT] - 23 Feb 2005 21:43 GMT

If the collation names are different you'll get the collation conflict
error -- a difference in accent sensitivity is sufficient to expose the
problem.

One option is rebuild master in dev or test (again) so that the two servers
have the same collation. You almost matched the collation last time, but
the different accent sensitivity setting is also critical.

Another option is to make sure that the T-SQL is written in a way that
makes it immune to the problem. For the scenario you describe you could do
this by making sure that your temp tables inherit the collation of the
current user database, not the collation of tempdb. A "COLLATE
database_default" clause will accomplish this. For example, when creating
the temp table in the stored proc:

CREATE TABLE #temp1 (
c1 int,
c2 varchar (30) COLLATE database_default,
c3 char(12) COLLATE database_default,
)

HTH,
Bart
------------
Bart Duncan
Microsoft SQL Server Support

Please reply to the newsgroup only - thanks.

Signature

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| Thread-Topic: Collation and Win2K3 Clustered Environment.
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| mhamilton"AT"nusoftsolutions"DOT"com

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MikeH - 23 Feb 2005 23:48 GMT

Bart, thanks for getting back to me.

I must confess, moving from 2KAS Clustering to 2K3 Clustering is NOT fun.
Simply because of the nuances I am finding.

Foremost, I did get the application working, and thus far I have not
experienced the infamous 446 collation error.

However...

This particular cluster is only running 6 instances of SQL Server. Each
instance has the Full Text Search engine/component installed - yet only 2 of
the instances are actually using it - and the problem I ran into is on 1 of
these 2 instances.

Specifically, this instance has the full text search active.

Now...

IF - and I say this 'loudly' - IF the full text server was 'offline' when I
did the rebuild - then restarted the instance and tested the app - the app
failed. Most interesting....

It took me a couple days to see what was happening. So... I did the same
with the full text 'online' and voila!!! I have joy... The application worked
fine.

Now... I have a few questions, but I'm sure you're not going to be able to
answer them anymore than I can. This notwithstanding, I find it interesting
that rebuilding the instance - with the SQL Full Text 'offline' when I do it
-could actually keep it from working. Yes, software is software - but this is
quirky at best.

Anyway... Thank you for responding... I will be in contact with PSS and my
manager on this issue, and if you have any other questions regarding the
setup, please feel free to contact me.

> If the collation names are different you'll get the collation conflict
> error -- a difference in accent sensitivity is sufficient to expose the
[quoted text clipped - 119 lines]
> |
> | mhamilton"AT"nusoftsolutions"DOT"com

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