Say you set up a Windows Server Failover Cluster consisting of two nodes, on Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise.
Now when you want to configure quorum you can use either a remote shared folder, or a shared disk (unless your nodes are separated geographically).
I'd love to know more about when to use a disk witness and when to use a file share witness. What are the differences? Does it matter at all?
Best Answer
Like you said; shared disk when nodes are connected to the same storage systems (which often isn't geographically seperated), file witness for everything else.
One good example of doing file share witness is when you want to avoid split-brain scenarios between two sites. You can set up a third site with only a single server and run a file server there for witness quorum. This way one of the sites will have a very likely chance to gain quorum through connectivity to the third site.
It all comes down on how long you can stay offline. Cluster elections with enough quorum votes can enable automatic failover. Just make sure you have an even number of nodes on both primary and secondary site before you start using quorum witness on a third site.