Symptom
While launching the Add Shared Folder Wizard from Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clustering console, you experience the following event:
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-FailoverClustering-Manager/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-FailoverClustering-Manager
Date: <date> <time>
Event ID: 4683
Task Category: Failover Clusters Manager MMC Snapin
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: domain\username
Computer: FQDN.xxx.domain.com
Description:
Failover Cluster Manager failed while managing one or more cluster. The error was 'A modal loop is already in progress.'. For more information see the Failover Cluster Manager Diagnostic channel.
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-FailoverClustering-Manager/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-FailoverClustering-Manager
Date: <date> <time>
Event ID: 4683
Task Category: Failover Clusters Manager MMC Snapin
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: domain\username
Computer: FQDN.xxx.domain.com
Description:
Failover Cluster Manager failed while managing one or more cluster. The error was 'A modal loop is already in progress.'. For more information see the Failover Cluster Manager Diagnostic channel.
Cause
This error message of "A modal loop is already in progress" having been caused by various reasons:
C1. An active scanning of a shared folder gets triggered by the anti-virus application installed, which results in the hang situation.
C2. For some unexplained reason, the shared folder was no longer shared. This was discovered by logging onto the server hosting the shared folder and found that it is not shared.
C3. In this specific case, we discovered on the Security tab of the shared root folder an orphaned User SID similar S-1-5-21-2052111302-725345543-472545530-93971. So whenever we tried running the Add Shared Folder Wizard on a sub-folder, it would try to inherit the permissions of the root folder and experience the "A modal loop is already in progress" error when it tried importing the permissions of the orphaned User SID.
C1. An active scanning of a shared folder gets triggered by the anti-virus application installed, which results in the hang situation.
C2. For some unexplained reason, the shared folder was no longer shared. This was discovered by logging onto the server hosting the shared folder and found that it is not shared.
C3. In this specific case, we discovered on the Security tab of the shared root folder an orphaned User SID similar S-1-5-21-2052111302-725345543-472545530-93971. So whenever we tried running the Add Shared Folder Wizard on a sub-folder, it would try to inherit the permissions of the root folder and experience the "A modal loop is already in progress" error when it tried importing the permissions of the orphaned User SID.
Resolution
Some of the resolutions:
R1. Uninstall the ant-virus, reboot and reinstall the anti-virus. Reason for these steps, is because the anti-virus had a Kernel level driver (as most do) which kicked off the real-time active scanning that needed to be uninstalled.
R2. After logging onto the server hosting the shared folder and sharing the folder out, it got populated in the Cluster Administrator console automatically.
R3. To resolve this case, we removed the orphaned User SID from the shared folder and it went through re-enumerating all the permissions and at that point we were able to successfully run the Add Shared Folder Wizard.
R1. Uninstall the ant-virus, reboot and reinstall the anti-virus. Reason for these steps, is because the anti-virus had a Kernel level driver (as most do) which kicked off the real-time active scanning that needed to be uninstalled.
R2. After logging onto the server hosting the shared folder and sharing the folder out, it got populated in the Cluster Administrator console automatically.
R3. To resolve this case, we removed the orphaned User SID from the shared folder and it went through re-enumerating all the permissions and at that point we were able to successfully run the Add Shared Folder Wizard.
More Information
Using Multiple Client Access Points (CAP) in a Windows Server 2008 (R2) Failover Cluster
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2010/08/24/using-multiple-client-access-points-cap-in-a-windows-server-2008-r2-failover-cluster.aspx