Failover cluster network binding order warning: Windows Server 2008/SQL Server 2008

I'm building another Windows Server 2008/SQL Server 2008 cluster today and came across an annoying issue which thankfully has a simple fix.

When I ran 'Advanced Cluster Preparation' from SQL Server 2008 setup the Setup Support Rules fired up a warning about the Network Binding Order:

Rule "Network binding order" generated a warning.

The domain network is not the first bound network.  This will cause domain operations to run slowly and can cause timeouts that result in failures.  Use the Windows network advanced configuration to change the binding order.

You can check the binding order by going to Network Connections and selecting Advanced-->Advanced settings from the menu.  Thats fine for Windows 2003 but in Windows 2008 its missing :-O

However, if you press the Alt key the File menu will appear along with the Advanced option.  Isn't it obvious!? :-\

Apparently, Windows didn't look pretty enough with easily accessible menus!

In my installation I had an extra network for management purposes which wasn't enabled for cluster use and was top of the binding order but if you look here and everything looks fine you might have a haunted ghosted network card:

You receive a warning about the network binding order on the Setup Support Rules page when you install SQL Server 2008 in a failover cluster: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955963

Regards,

Christian

Christian Bolton  - MCA: Database, MCM: SQL Server, MVP
Database Architect
http://coeo.com - SQL Server Consultants & Remote DBA Services