We operate a 3 node Windows cluster to add HA capability to SQL Server. In this cluster 1 of the 3 nodes is a "reporting" server and is configured to never take ownership of the cluster. At the moment we have one node (node1) and the file share witness in one data center, and the other node (node2) and reporting node (node3) in a second data center. Here's some sanitized pics of our config:
Here's the node view showing how the voting is configured:
Here is the properties showing that only 2 of the 3 nodes can actually take ownership:
I'm trying to confirm, or just better understand, how to prevent the loss of a data center from taking the cluster down to a lost quorum.
Today we suffered an outage because the second data center went offline, which makes sense because we just had node1 available, and it didn't have enough votes to meet quorum. We've added a file share witness in the same data center as node1, with the thought being it could add the second vote required should node2 and node3 disappear. The more I read though I'm not convinced that's the right understanding.
Has anyone run into a configuration like this and figured out how to protect against losing 2 nodes of a 3 node cluster?
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