INFO: Installation of Application Center 2000 Changes the Node Type to 4 (Mixed) (821130)

SUMMARY

After you install any of the Microsoft Application Center 2000 products that are listed in this article, the node type is set to 4 (M-node, Mixed). Additionally, a new registry entry with a value of 4 is created under the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\NetBT\Parameters\NodeType

This means that after the installation of Application Center, the members of the cluster are using an M-node type of WINS name resolution. When this usage occurs, the computer name is broadcast first, and then the DNS server is queried. The installation of Application Center overwrites the default key value of 8 (H-node type, hybrid) in the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\NetBT\Parameters\DhcpNodeType

This change may cause two problems:

An increase in network traffic because of the additional broadcast of the server name.
Bogus 4320 error messages on other servers that are broadcasting on the same subnet when the following hotfix is applied:
269239 MS00-047: NetBIOS Vulnerability May Cause Duplicate Name on

This hotfix sets a registry key with a value of 1 as follows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\NetBT\Parameters\NoNameReleaseOnDemand

MORE INFORMATION

Application Center 2000 installation makes this change in the registry to guarantee good name resolution in an Application Center 2000 cluster.

If you want to change this, you can reset the node type back to Hybrid after the Application Center 2000 installation is complete. However, you must guarantee that all the NetBIOS names of all cluster members resolve to their management network adapters by using either WINS, Lmhosts, or DNS. Additionally, you may also want to completely disable Application Center 2000 name resolution. For additional information about how to do this, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

301688 HOWTO: Turn Off NetBIOS Name Resolution in Application Center Cluster That Uses Network Load Balancing