Distributed cache stuck on starting

Question

Issues

1. In Central admin under Manage Services the Distributed cache service is stuck on starting.
2. One of the cache hosts in the cluster is down one server A.
3. More Cache hosts are running in this deployment than are registered with SharePoint for Server A and Server B

Server Config

8 server SharePoint farm
Server A and Server B:  Distributed cache servers
Server C and Server D:  Front End servers
Server E and Server F:  App servers
Server G and Server H:  OWA servers

Get-cachehost cmdlet Service status Up for both Server A and Server B.

Steps so far

• Restarted AppFabric service on Server A and Server B
• Added service account to local admins on Server A and Server B
• Stop-CacheCluster and Start-CacheCluster
• Restarted Server A and Server B
• export-cacheconfigserver

Configuration Server A

HostName        : ServerA
ClusterPort     : 22234
CachePort       : 22233
ArbitrationPort : 22235
ReplicationPort : 22236
Size            : 5125 MB
ServiceName     : AppFabricCachingService
HighWatermark   : 99%
LowWatermark    : 90%
IsLeadHost      : True

Configuration Server B

HostName        : ServerB
ClusterPort     : 22234
CachePort       : 22233
ArbitrationPort : 22235
ReplicationPort : 22236
Size            : 5125 MB
ServiceName     : AppFabricCachingService
HighWatermark   : 99%
LowWatermark    : 90%
IsLeadHost      : True

Answer 1

May be you already fix the issues, But when we had the issue, we repair the DC.

Run the below powershell to repair it.

$instanceName ="SPDistributedCacheService Name=AppFabricCachingService"
$serviceInstance = Get-SPServiceInstance | ? {($_.service.tostring()) -eq $instanceName -and ($_.server.name) -eq $env:computername}
$serviceInstance.delete()

Now run this one on each server you want to add into cluster.

Add-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance

I highly recommend, start DC on the servers where you want.