> any reason why this might be happening and/or tips to debug this issue?
>
> note that i have tried registering the filter at both scopes - enterprise
> and array to no avail. the behavior remains the same.
>
You have to not only register the filter in the configuration, but also
set a reference in a second place that indicates which array servers
have the DLL installed currently. This is so that each server can know
whether to try and load the DLL or not.
My guess is your installer/register code is not doing this second thing.
I don't remember what exactly you have to do here. Look at the SDK
and it tells you. DO NOT rely on the example filters' code, it does not
work.