Recently, one of my blog readers encountered a peculiar issue with their SQL Server resource in a cluster. They were unable to bring the SQL Server resource online on one specific node of the cluster. The resource would go into an online pending state and eventually fail. The error message they received was “Data source name not found and no default driver specified.”

To troubleshoot this issue, I asked them to generate and share the cluster log with me. By analyzing the cluster log, we found the following error:

00000fd4.000002ac::2016/10/17-14:31:38.672 ERR [RES] SQL Server : [sqsrvres] ODBC Error: [IM002] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified (0)

Based on this error, I suggested checking the ODBC drivers available on the nodes of the cluster. They navigated to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > ODBC Data Sources and found that the SQL Server Native Client 11.0 was missing on the non-working node.

To resolve this issue, we downloaded the “sqlncli.msi” from the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Feature Pack page and installed it on the problematic node. This installation added the missing software under the ODBC Admin tool. After installing the missing driver, the failover process worked smoothly.

Using the cluster log for troubleshooting can be a valuable tool in identifying and resolving issues with SQL Server resources in a cluster. It provides insights into the specific errors and helps pinpoint the root cause of the problem.

Have you ever encountered a similar issue with SQL Server resources in a cluster? How did you resolve it? Share your experiences in the comments below!