Mirroring – Role of Witness Server and Quorum

When a witness server is set, a mirroring session (high safety mode with automatic failover mode) needs quorum to keep the database service. A quorum is the minimal relationship among all connected servers required for synchronous database mirroring session.

Now the next question that comes in mind is about the single point of failure for witness. It is not a single point of failure because if witness fails, principal and mirror will still continue to form a quorum.

Various types of quorum are possible.

Say for example

A = Principal
B = Mirror
C = Witness

Full Quorum – Both partners and witness are included - A∩B∩C

Quorum of partners – Only the two partners are included - A∩B

Quorum with witness and partner – Witness and one of the partners are included C∩(AUB)

Quorum loses sessions

If all the servers are disconnected then the session loses quorum

Now that we know all possible types of quorum, let’s see how each one affects the database and application.

If witness is disconnected when either partner goes down, the database is unavailable since quorum cannot be formed. If the session loses quorum, then the database will not be available until the quorum is re-established.