Figure 7.5 Changing the votes for nodes in a cluster
To make the change using PowerShell, set the vote of the node to 0 (instead of the
default value of 1), as in this example:
(Get-ClusterNode
To view the current voting state of nodes in a cluster, use the Nodes view within
Failover Cluster Manager, as shown in Figure 7.6. Note that two values are shown. The
administrator-configured node weight is shown in the Assigned Vote column, while
the cluster-assigned dynamic vote weight as controlled by dynamic quorum is shown
in the Current Vote column. If you run a cluster validation, the generated report also
shows the vote status of the nodes in the cluster. Remember, use the node vote
weighting only in the specific geo-cluster scenarios requiring manual failover. In most
scenarios, you should not manually change the node weights.
Figure 7.6 Viewing the current voting state of a cluster
Earlier in this chapter, I explained that in Windows Server 2012 R2 and above, the
guidance is always to configure a witness for the cluster. This is because the dynamic
quorum technology has been extended to the witness in Windows Server 2012 R2; this
technology is known as dynamic witness. Failover Clustering is now smart enough to