Error With Linked Server After Failover

Hi all,

The following query that uses a linked server is giving me the error message below after I initiate a failover (ALTER DATABASE Northwind SET PARTNER FAILOVER). I have SQL Server 2005 SP2. I think that without the service pack there is another error too.

The query is run from a database other than northwind of course.
select * from DualLink.northwind.dbo.Test1


Please note that:
without a failover it works perfectly
it always work if I try to run it a second time - only the first time it fails.
it fails the first time for each of the open connections. A new connection that was open after the failover will work fine.


A transport-level error has occurred when sending the request to the server. (provider: TCP Provider, error: 0 - An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.)

A transport-level error has occurred when sending the request to the server. (provider: Shared Memory Provider, error: 0 - No process is on the other end of the pipe.)

The linked server is defined as

EXEC master.
dbo.sp_addlinkedserver
@server = N'DualLink',
@srvproduct=N'',
@provider=N'SQLOLEDB',
@catalog=N'northwind',
@provstr=N'Server=(local);FailoverPartner=MyIPAddr;'

EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedsrvlogin
@rmtsrvname = 'DualLink',
@useself = false,
@locallogin = 'sa',
@rmtuser = 'sa',
@rmtpassword = 'MyPwd'

Thanks,
Avi