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Windows Server 2003 Network Load Balancing (NLB) Error: “No interfaces are available for installing a new cluster”

October 1st, 2007 Simon Seagrave

After imaging a server and then trying to add it to a Windows Server 2003 Network Load Balancing (NLB) configuration with the original machine you will get this error message: “no interfaces are available for installing a new cluster”.

This is due to the network GUID’s in the registry being the same. Even re-SID’ing the server using a product such as SysInternals ‘newsid’ does not resolve this issue. Do not fear – it is infact easy to resolve. What you want to do is give the network adapter that you’re trying to add to the network load balanced configuration a new GUID.

Follow these steps:

1. On the server from the image enter into ‘Device Manager’.
2.Expand out ‘Network Adapters’ and right mouse click on the Network adapter that you are trying to add to the network load balanced (NLB) configuration.
3. Select ‘Uninstall’. The network card (NIC) has now been uninstalled.
4. Next you want to re-add the network card which in turn will create a new GUID for it. Do this by right mouse clicking your servers name at the top of the ‘Device Manager’ list and select ‘Scan for hardware changes’. This will now re-detect the network card (NIC) and give it a new GUID.
5. Now exit out of ‘Device Manager’ and try re-adding that server into the NLB configuration. You should find this now works all ok.

Good Luck

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11 Responses to “Windows Server 2003 Network Load Balancing (NLB) Error: “No interfaces are available for installing a new cluster””

1. Josh says:

   14 January, 2008 at 4:55 pm

   nice post, ive been trying to solve this issue for a long time . Keep it up…. IT works…..
2. Happy says:

   31 January, 2008 at 12:50 am

   Thanks a bunch that was totally my problem
3. Linkavich14 says:

   3 July, 2008 at 12:53 am

   Thanks a lot, with this I was able to finish my OS project.
4. Clif says:

   12 September, 2008 at 4:48 pm

   Any idea how to do using command line script ?
5. krik says:

   4 November, 2008 at 8:59 pm

   Thanks a lot , worked like a charm.
6. Cleiton Souza from Brazil says:

   21 November, 2008 at 12:01 am

   After 2 hours looking for this, I find this site, thanks a lot, now my NLB worked!!!
7. pclavel says:

   22 December, 2008 at 4:30 pm

   Fantastic. It’s amazing was so simple to fix it!!! Thanks a lot.
8. Microsoft NLB Error when trying to Cluster Cloned VM’s | The SLOG - SimonLong/Blog says:

   9 March, 2009 at 5:59 am

   [...] Recommend solution found here (which I now use, when I realised that I was being a [...]
9. joeciocci says:

   11 September, 2009 at 2:03 pm

   Thats ideal..only issue is where i need to do this remoteley with no Techi’s on site :’( looks like a 400 mile drive for me next week
10. Ossey says:

    16 February, 2010 at 3:55 pm

    Thanks a lot…
11. Thijs says:

    31 May, 2011 at 2:43 pm

    Thanks! That did the trick!!