Force quorum in a majority node set server cluster

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To force quorum in a majority node set server cluster

Open Cluster Administrator.
Stop the Cluster service on all remaining nodes.

For more information on stopping the Cluster service, see "To stop the Cluster service" in Related Topics.
Open Registry Editor.
Create a String value called ForceQuorum under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ClusSvc\Parameters subkey
Set the value of ForceQuorum to a comma-separated list of the names of the nodes that are to be part of the quorum set.

For example, if the cluster that has lost quorum contains nodes "Node5", "Node6" and "Node7", then set up the ForceQuorum registry key as "Node5,Node6,Node7".

Caution
- If you do not list all the nodes stopped in step 2 in the ForceQuorum key, then you must either power off the nodes not listed or physically disconnect them from the network before performing the next step.
Start the Cluster service on the remaining nodes.

For more information on starting the Cluster service, see "To start the Cluster service" in Related Topics.

Important

When you force quorum in a majority node set cluster, an error message from the Service Control Manager may appear, indicating that the Cluster service failed to start. You can safely ignore this message at this time; the Cluster service will continue startup after the end of the startup timeout period for Service Control Manager.
Do not change your cluster configuration while the cluster is operating in this interim state. For example, do not add or remove nodes, or install or modify applications running in the cluster. Changing the cluster configuration in this interim operating state may result in application data inconsistencies.

Notes

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.
To open Cluster Administrator, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Cluster Administrator.

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