SharePoint 2016: Distributed Cache cacheHostInfo null

Problem

When setting up MinRole SharePoint 2016 server with 9 SharePoint servers using AutoSPInstaller, one of the Distributed Cache servers was not behaving correctly, and gave error “cacheHostInfo is null”. Also Health checks were saying that “This Distributed Cache host may cause cache reliability problems.“ and referring to the individual server. Fix button on the Services on Server page in Central Admin didn’t do anything.

Solution

Basic cache host repair steps worked fine on SP2016 as well, so did the following on the offending server:

1. Get the Distributed Cache Service Id of the offending server
   
   Get-SPServiceInstance | where {$_.TypeName -like '*distributed*'} | select Id, Server
   
2. Remove the service instance
   
   $d = Get-SPServiceInstance <GUID>
   $d.Delete()
   
3. Finally recreate the service instance
   
   Add-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance