How to move File Server Witness (FSW) in Exchange Server 2010 DAG

How to move File Server Witness (FSW) in Exchange Server 2010 DAG

Author,

Arun Chaudhary

MCP, MCTS, MCITP

(Exchange 2010)

Exchange Administrator, Book writer,

 Freelancer trainer of Exchange & Windows Servers

Mail me: arunkalagarh@gmail.com

Visit me: http://exchangeby-arun.blogspot.com

About me: I am working as an Exchange Administrator & also a freelancer trainer of Exchange & other Microsoft Servers; I have 6+ years experience in Microsoft servers. I have written many articles on different – different topics & given Exchange Server training for more than 250 Indian & Inter national clients.

In this article, I am going to discuss with you that how to move a FSW in Exchange 2010 DAG, when any server fails in DAG scenario.

As we know that DAG in Exchange 2010 Server required File Server Witness (FSW), FSW is used to create the Majority in case of server failure in the DAG. And as we know that DAG is managed from the EMC & EMS also but it still required the fail-over clustering binaries under the hood. And the DAG is built on top of a Majority node set cluster, but we don’t use Windows fail-over cluster feature for managing the DAG. The FSW server can be any Exchange Server (recommended is HT) with a file share, which is required for the DAG members. We can also use any windows server machine as a Files Server witness, but we have to add this server in the Exchange Trusted Subsystem Universal Security Group to the local Administrators Group on the FSW Server, without installing any more service.

When we configure DAG, that time we have to provide the FSW Server information.

These are the following commands, which can help you to create the DAG, FSW & also verification of DAG & FSW.

 Run the following command to create the DAG

New-Database AvailabilityGroup -Name DAG-test -WitnessServer HT-1 -WitnessDirectory C:\FSW_DAG-test

To verify the DAG configuration, run the following commands:

Get-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup

To make the changes in FSW option in DAG-test, use the following CMDLets:

Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup -Identity DAG-test | Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup -WitnessServer HT-1

To verify the FSW options in DAG, sue this CMDLets:

Get-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup -Identity | Select Wi*

If this article makes help you to configure & move the FSW in DAG, please leave your valuable comments.

                                                            Thanks

                                                       Arun Chaudhary