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I have built a Windows 2012 R2 failover cluster in Azure using a premium file share (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sql/virtual-machines-windows-portal-sql-create-failover-cluster-premium-file-share) and now I am having trouble configuring a file share witness for the cluster.

I created a new storage account (not premium), added a file share, and configured it to use my AAD DS domain. I am able to connect to the file share on my cluster nodes and I granted the cluster name object computer account full control on the directory I created in the share.

When I go to configure the file share witness in the cluster I just get the following error: "An error occurred getting information for the file share 'filesharewitnessname'."

Normally I would also configure the share permission to match the ntfs permission, but I am not able to from windows when I look at the folder properties. I cannot add a computer account (the cluster) to the access control (IAM) roles from my storage account.

Anyone have any ideas? Am I missing something simple here? I was able to configure a cloud witness on a Windows 2016 cluster, but Windows 2012 R2 does not have this option. I am having trouble finding relevant documentation from Microsoft about adding a file share witness to a cluster with an azure file share storage account. Thanks!

Chris
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unfortunately using the Azure file share is not supported as a cluster witness at this time, as per https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/storage-files-faq

I've typically used a VM for a file share witness in Azure.
Shared disks is now in preview in Azure, which might also be an option for you? https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/disks-shared-enable

John
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  • Thanks for the info! Good to know it is not supported yet. I never saw that and just assumed it was supported. Even in the prerequisites on the link I posted it says: "If you're on Windows Server 2012 R2 and older, you will need another file share to use as the file share witness, since cloud witnesses are supported for Windows 2016 and newer. You can use another Azure file share, or you can use a file share on a separate virtual machine. If you're going to use another Azure file share, you can mount it with the same process as for the premium file share used for your clustered drive." – Chris Apr 15 '20 at 14:38