Numerous errors related to File Share Witness

Lt. Columbo 311 Reputation points
2021-03-15T10:53:23.27+00:00

Hi All,

I have two sites (HO and BO) connected to each other over site-to-site VPN.
In the HO I have a failover cluster and in the BO I have a host with a file share configured as a file share witness for the failover cluster.
Both hosts of the failover cluster can ping the hosts where FSW resides.
Both hosts can access FSW by UNC path \vmhost\witness.
However, in the Cluster Events I can the following warnings and errors.

1562 - File share witness resource 'File Share Witness' failed a periodic health check on file share '\VMHOST01\WITNESS'. Please ensure that file share '\VMHOST01\WITNESS' exists and is accessible by the cluster.
1069 - Cluster resource 'File Share Witness' of type 'File Share Witness' in clustered role 'Cluster Group' failed.
Based on the failure policies for the resource and role, the cluster service may try to bring the resource online on this node or move the group to another node of the cluster and then restart it. Check the resource and group state using Failover Cluster Manager or the Get-ClusterResource Windows PowerShell cmdlet.
1564 - File share witness resource 'File Share Witness' failed to arbitrate for the file share '\VMHOST01\WITNESS'. Please ensure that file share '\VMHOST01\WITNESS' exists and is accessible by the cluster.
1205 - The Cluster service failed to bring clustered role 'Cluster Group' completely online or offline. One or more resources may be in a failed state. This may impact the availability of the clustered role.

I can't understand why those warnings and errors are generated if the failover cluster itself functions normally.
If any has ever had the same issue please advise if it lead to failover cluster failure if a half of the nodes is down.

Windows Server Clustering
Windows Server Clustering
Windows Server: A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.Clustering: The grouping of multiple servers in a way that allows them to appear to be a single unit to client computers on a network. Clustering is a means of increasing network capacity, providing live backup in case one of the servers fails, and improving data security.
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  1. JiayaoZhu 3,911 Reputation points
    2021-03-17T10:12:36.627+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for your reply!

    Here are some tips that I can give you to troubleshoot your issue:

    1.Does your cluster event have this problem occasionally or keep reporting this error? Is the current witness status online or offline?

    2.If the current witness is offline, please try online to see if there are any errors,

    3.If it is currently online and no error is reported at the current time, it may be caused by temporary network instability when the error occurs. Please check the network connection with witness when the witness is offline.

    Thank you for your time and please feel free to feedback if you still have concerns about your issue.

    Best regards
    Joann

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  2. Lt. Columbo 311 Reputation points
    2021-04-16T09:35:23.167+00:00

    Decided to set up cloud witness instead.

  3. SQL SERVER 0 Reputation points
    2023-03-10T23:57:12.7666667+00:00
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