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RajamanivelRajarathinam-0362 avatar image
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RajamanivelRajarathinam-0362 asked YuhanDeng-MSFT commented

Azure -Windows 2012 failover cluster file witness query

Hi Team,

We have a query on Windows 2012 failover cluster file witness option.

As we are using 2012 R2, we don't have a "Cloud Witness" option so we like to choose another option called "File witness"

1) How to achieve this task? Do we need to set up a new centralized VM for this file witness ? or this can be achieved by using Azure shared disk?

2) If we start using Azure shared disk for a failover cluster, then what are the limitations, and does this impact SQL backup/restore?

3) Does Azure shared disk support VMs deployed in the Availability set/Availability zone?

Please provide your feedback with the best possible options.

Thanks,
Raj

windows-server
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Hi Raj,

I would like to check if the reply could be of help? If yes, please help accept answer, so that others meet a similar issue can find useful information quickly. If you have any other concerns or questions, please feel free to feedback.

Best Regards,
Danny

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Hi Raj,

I would like to check if the issue has been fixed? If yes, please help accept answer, so that others meet a similar issue can find useful information quickly. If you have any other concerns or questions, please feel free to feedback.

Best Regards,
Danny

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YuhanDeng-MSFT avatar image
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YuhanDeng-MSFT answered

Hi Raj,
I did some research and I found several articles. Hope they will help:
For file share witness you can refer to this:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/failover-clustering/file-share-witness
For Azure shared disk you can refer to this:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/run-clustered-applications-azure-shared-disks/
And for availability options for azure virtual machines you can refer to this:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/availability

Thanks for your time.
Best Regards,
Danny


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AlexBykovskyi avatar image
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AlexBykovskyi answered

Hey,

As mentioned, you can use Azure Shared Disk as a disk for a disk witness. As an alternative, you can use StarWind VSAN to create a shared device between VMs and use it as Witness. The following guide should help: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/starwind-virtual-san-for-hyper-v-2-node-hyperconverged-scenario-with-windows-server-2016/

Cheers,

Alex Bykovskyi

StarWind Software

Note: Posts are provided “AS IS” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose.

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