So, I've done quite a bit of searching for what I'm about to propose and I've been able to find nothing.
I currently have a multi site failover cluster hosting separate 2-node SQL clusters at each site connected through an Availability Group. For the failover cluster I am using a file share witness hosted on a server at the primary site. Both sites are built entirely on vSphere 5.5 and have full replication for the production servers. If the primary site goes down (disaster), I'll need to force quorum in the secondary site to a new file share witness.
Well, I got to thinking...
Why not just replicate the server hosting the file share? I completely understand the reasoning behind not putting the file share witness on DFS, but a replicated virtual server, why not? If the primary site fails, the replicated server hosting the file share witness is brought online with the rest of the production servers in the DR site. In that case, the only thing that changes is the server IP address, but ultimately, the server name and share where quorum is hosted all stays the same.
Ultimately this prevents needing to find a 3rd geographical/cloud location to host a quorum/witness at. I can't imagine it's this "simple", but maybe it is. If this is possible, and there's not something I'm missing, this essentially makes the quorum file share witness site agnostic, meaning it could live or be moved anywhere that replication is allowed.
Ideas, thoughts? Am I missing something?
Thanks!
Chris Miller