Removing two distributed servers from farm and adding back to the farm

Question

Removing two distributed servers from farm and adding back to the farm

sns 9,251

As part of troubleshooting for the distributed cache issue, we have planned to remove the 2 Distributed cache servers from farm and adding back to farm. I have noticed while running product config wizard, I have not found the role to choose Distributed cache role instead it was just showing normal way of running config wizard like legacy versions, but it is SharePoint 2016 We have 9 servers in farm 2 WFE, 2 Distriuted servers and 5 App servers: Here are the high level steps I am planning to implement,

Log in to app server--> servers in farm--> choose Distributed server --> Remove server
log on to Distributed server and Install SharePoint
After installing SharePoint is over, running the prod config wizard & choosing the Distriuted server role for this respective server
Verify the Distrusted cache server role

Please clarify following questions

Steps mentioned above order is correct? If I miss anything please add
since role option is not showing how we need to manage at 3rd step?
I need to click on prerequisite installer and the once done and I need to run the step up file , am I correct? ( from 2nd step) ( If possible please provide me screeshot of this)
During installation and after installing SP, Do I need to make sure of anything specific to Web application or CA etc?
Anything to be noted down from SHarepoint Databases prospective?

Thank you 1.

sns 9,251 Reputation points

2023-04-12T06:36:51.9133333+00:00

test123

2 answers

Your answer

sns 9,251 Reputation points

2023-04-12T06:36:51.9133333+00:00

test123

Answer 1

AllenXu-MSFT 24,981 Moderator

Hi @sns,

The steps you mentioned above are totally correct.
I don't understand why you say "I have not found the role to choose Distributed cache role". As per my experience, Distributed Cache role can be selected in SharePoint 2016 configuration wizard.
You can directly run SharePoint configuration wizard (needn't to run both prerequisiteinstaller.exe and setup.exe) because you just remove the server from your SharePoint farm, not uninstall SharePoint on your server.
Just go to CA >> Manage servers in this farm and make sure the server has been re-added and is part of your farm.
No. In this case, I don't think you need to take SharePoint databases prospective into consideration.

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sns 9,251 Reputation points

2023-04-12T06:50:33.5166667+00:00
Hi Allen, Thank you for the response. so doing followig steps enough? Please confirm

Removing the Distributed cache serves from farm from servers in farm

and log in to Distributed cache servers and run prod confix wizard is enough?

and why I am not sure why I have not found role like you when I tried testing prod config wizard run. and just in case if we need to install SharePoint, how can I make following image to prerequste and set up file format to proceed?
AllenXu-MSFT 24,981 Reputation points Moderator

2023-04-12T07:17:30.9666667+00:00
@sns, Totally right:

Removing the Distributed cache serves from farm from servers in farm

and log in to Distributed cache servers and run prod confix wizard is enough.

Just double click the SharePoint image file, and you will see file structure like this:
AllenXu-MSFT 24,981 Reputation points Moderator

2023-04-14T01:30:33.3166667+00:00

@sns, Is there any progress on this thread? Feel free to reply:)
sns 9,251 Reputation points

2023-04-14T08:57:01.2266667+00:00

Hi Allen, While removing the Distributed cache server it self it is giving following error

From the respective ULS logs with above correlation id , i found below logs, Please suggest further. Thanks

AllenXu-MSFT 24,981 Moderator

@sns,

Firstly have a try to delete the service instance and re-add it by PowerShell script.

$SPFarm = Get-SPFarm

$cacheClusterName = "SPDistributedCacheCluster_" + $SPFarm.Id.ToString()

$cacheClusterManager = [Microsoft.SharePoint.DistributedCaching.Utilities.SPDistributedCacheClusterInfoManager]::Local

$cacheClusterInfo = $cacheClusterManager.GetSPDistributedCacheClusterInfo($cacheClusterName);

$instanceName ="SPDistributedCacheService Name=AppFabricCachingService"

$serviceInstance = Get-SPServiceInstance | ? {($_.Service.Tostring()) -eq $instanceName -and ($_.Server.Name) -eq "Server name for server you are trying to remove"}

$serviceInstance.Delete()

Remove-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance

run this command after 1 or 2 minutes:

Add-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance (run this command after 1 or 2 minutes).

sns 9,251 Reputation points

2023-04-14T09:48:45.4333333+00:00

Hi Alle Xu, Above steps I have tried already before trying to remove Cachce server for the farm since those did not work we approached with removing Distrubted cache server and further steps but it is failing at the removing step it self now.
AllenXu-MSFT 24,981 Reputation points Moderator

2023-04-17T07:44:48.5833333+00:00

@sns, Can you ping your Distributed cache server successfully on your App server?
AllenXu-MSFT 24,981 Reputation points Moderator

2023-04-19T08:01:25.35+00:00

hi, any updates?
sns 9,251 Reputation points

2023-04-20T10:47:08.4566667+00:00

Hi Allex Xu, Apologies for the delay. I have tried to ping distrusted server IP from app server, it is pinging successfully , no loss. Please suggest further.
AllenXu-MSFT 24,981 Reputation points Moderator

2023-05-03T02:53:30.22+00:00

@sns, Please feel free to reply if you still need further help.

Answer 2

AllenXu-MSFT 24,981 Moderator

Hi @sns,

Is there any error if you run SharePoint configuration wizard on your distributed servers? Comment here if there is any error when running it. If the SharePoint configuration wizard runs successfully on your distributed servers, I'm afraid it is hard to go on further troubleshooting on my side. For help you better, you can open a ticket with Microsoft.

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sns 9,251 Reputation points

2023-05-07T16:39:27.3033333+00:00

Hi Allen Xu,

Yes while running config wizard , it is failing and error showing in the logs is "Null cache full"

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Removing two distributed servers from farm and adding back to the farm

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