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Windows Server 2019: USB-Based File Share Witness Support

Dave Bermingham introduces us to a new feature coming in Windows Server 2019:

I’m very excited to hear that coming in Windows Server 2019 there will be a few new features in regards to the File Share Witness for the Failover Cluster Quorum. The feature that many of my customers have been asking for about for many years is finally arriving…File Share Witness on a USB stick!

Okay, they didn’t really ask for that specifically, but many of my customers wanted to deploy a simple 2-node cluster in each store location, branch office, etc., and they didn’t want the added expense of a SAN to leverage a Disk Witness and weren’t to keen, or just didn’t have the connectivity, to rely on a Cloud Witness in Azure. Many of these customers just decided to forgo clustering, or they used an alternative clustering solution like the SIOS Protection Suite.

Now they have a viable alternative coming in Windows Server 2019. By leveraging a supported router, a USB disk inserted into the router can be configured with a file share that can be used as the witness. This eliminates the need for a 3rd server or internet connectivity.

I can’t see this being extremely useful in most scenarios, though that could be a lack of imagination on my part.