We are using the latest version of the solution. The buyers of the product must pay attention to the watchdog hardware. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.
I give the solution an eight out of ten. The solution is like IAS, the version depends on the version of the window server. So it's part of the server. So you don't use or specify the version except with which Windows server you are using. The solution has some downside frankly, that it needs a lot of configuration and steps in order to create your cluster. This means that deploying this service is not that hard. It is easier than IAS, but if you want to configure the cluster service to create a cluster of an application, then it'll depend on the application you want to create a cluster with. But once it is done, it'll perform very well. Sometimes you have to manually assign a master, especially when there is an unexpected shutdown caused by another problem. Sometimes you will face these types of problems. You need to manually assign a master. If you reboot the servers one by one, you don't need to reboot them at the same time. When you reboot them one by one, for example, if you reboot the master, before the master restart, it will communicate and handle the quorum to another one. It's like, "Okay, I'm not the master anymore. Choose another master that will handle the communications and requests." And when it starts, it will no longer be the new master. It will be another slave that will wait for the master to fail so they will also do an election to set the new master and give it to the quorum. The deployment time depends on what you want to create on the cluster. Meaning if it's a Microsoft SQL server, it needs a lot of steps or a lot of configuration because you need to create a cluster, you need to create the listener because you have a bunch of servers. Meaning you have a lot of IP addresses that the master will need since the master can change. As an example, for server one that has an IP address, one is master, it will handle the communications, but once it fails there will be another master with another IP address. We don't each time teach the IP address to communicate with the cluster and that's why the Failover service will create a visual IP address that is called a listener so that it will communicate with the clients and other applications and it will handle the back of it. This means if something fails, the switching from one master to another, will be transparent to users. Since you are communicating with the virtual IP risk address, that will not change. Behind this listener, a lot of things can happen. Master fails, unless the new master changes IP addresses, et cetera. So it'll be transparent for the users. These configurations can take time depending on the application, the architecture, or the scenario you want to use this service with. If it's servers, it'll take some time. It depends on how many servers you want to create, and what type of cluster you want to create with the service or database, file system, servers, et cetera. So it can take time but not many days. You can do it within the day to have your clustered application or servers fully working. The solution requires two System administrators to maintain. I suggest if you want to use the product, start with a freshly installed server. Meaning that the server doesn't need to host any data from the start. Once it is configured you can put your data onto the server. Otherwise, you need to be careful in the cluster configuration process, because once you add your servers at one step, I don't recall, when you click on Next, it will configure the cluster as file servers. Meaning that it will take all remaining storage capacity on each server and create the pool of storage with the capacity of some of these remaining stores. There is a checkbox. I don't remember if you need to check it or uncheck it. Either way, you need to do the contrary of what you found. If it's checked, you need to uncheck it. If it's unchecked, you need to check. I don't recall at which step you will find it, but you need to be careful and you need to read about the service before starting to create one. And also you need to read each document so that you will know what are all the requirements to create a cluster.
We are currently looking for another solution because, in many industries, such as eCommerce, they operate 24 hours a day seven days a week and this solution has some downtime which our customers do not like. I would recommend this solution to others, we have used it for a long time and it has been reliable. I rate Windows Server Failover Clustering an eight out of ten.
We're a Microsoft silver partner. We're on Windows Server 2016. I would warn potential new users that they need to pay attention to the licensing due to the fact that it's complex, and, depending on what you need, can get expensive. The newer stuff seems to be more reliable than the older systems. I'm not using it yet, but I'd advise new users to get Windows 2019. Overall, I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.
Learn what your peers think about Windows Server Failover Clustering. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
I am happy with the current features. The technology has evolved impressively. With Windows 2019, it is possible, to “failover cluster” both on-premises and cloud resources.
Windows Server Failover Clustering provides infrastructure features that support the high-availability and disaster recovery scenarios of hosted server applications such as Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange. If a cluster node or service fails, the services that were hosted on that node can be automatically or manually transferred to another available node in a process known as failover.
If you have a budget, keeping the solution for data safety is better. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
We are using the latest version of the solution. The buyers of the product must pay attention to the watchdog hardware. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.
I would rate the product an eight out of ten.
I give the solution an eight out of ten. The solution is like IAS, the version depends on the version of the window server. So it's part of the server. So you don't use or specify the version except with which Windows server you are using. The solution has some downside frankly, that it needs a lot of configuration and steps in order to create your cluster. This means that deploying this service is not that hard. It is easier than IAS, but if you want to configure the cluster service to create a cluster of an application, then it'll depend on the application you want to create a cluster with. But once it is done, it'll perform very well. Sometimes you have to manually assign a master, especially when there is an unexpected shutdown caused by another problem. Sometimes you will face these types of problems. You need to manually assign a master. If you reboot the servers one by one, you don't need to reboot them at the same time. When you reboot them one by one, for example, if you reboot the master, before the master restart, it will communicate and handle the quorum to another one. It's like, "Okay, I'm not the master anymore. Choose another master that will handle the communications and requests." And when it starts, it will no longer be the new master. It will be another slave that will wait for the master to fail so they will also do an election to set the new master and give it to the quorum. The deployment time depends on what you want to create on the cluster. Meaning if it's a Microsoft SQL server, it needs a lot of steps or a lot of configuration because you need to create a cluster, you need to create the listener because you have a bunch of servers. Meaning you have a lot of IP addresses that the master will need since the master can change. As an example, for server one that has an IP address, one is master, it will handle the communications, but once it fails there will be another master with another IP address. We don't each time teach the IP address to communicate with the cluster and that's why the Failover service will create a visual IP address that is called a listener so that it will communicate with the clients and other applications and it will handle the back of it. This means if something fails, the switching from one master to another, will be transparent to users. Since you are communicating with the virtual IP risk address, that will not change. Behind this listener, a lot of things can happen. Master fails, unless the new master changes IP addresses, et cetera. So it'll be transparent for the users. These configurations can take time depending on the application, the architecture, or the scenario you want to use this service with. If it's servers, it'll take some time. It depends on how many servers you want to create, and what type of cluster you want to create with the service or database, file system, servers, et cetera. So it can take time but not many days. You can do it within the day to have your clustered application or servers fully working. The solution requires two System administrators to maintain. I suggest if you want to use the product, start with a freshly installed server. Meaning that the server doesn't need to host any data from the start. Once it is configured you can put your data onto the server. Otherwise, you need to be careful in the cluster configuration process, because once you add your servers at one step, I don't recall, when you click on Next, it will configure the cluster as file servers. Meaning that it will take all remaining storage capacity on each server and create the pool of storage with the capacity of some of these remaining stores. There is a checkbox. I don't remember if you need to check it or uncheck it. Either way, you need to do the contrary of what you found. If it's checked, you need to uncheck it. If it's unchecked, you need to check. I don't recall at which step you will find it, but you need to be careful and you need to read about the service before starting to create one. And also you need to read each document so that you will know what are all the requirements to create a cluster.
We are currently looking for another solution because, in many industries, such as eCommerce, they operate 24 hours a day seven days a week and this solution has some downtime which our customers do not like. I would recommend this solution to others, we have used it for a long time and it has been reliable. I rate Windows Server Failover Clustering an eight out of ten.
We're a Microsoft silver partner. We're on Windows Server 2016. I would warn potential new users that they need to pay attention to the licensing due to the fact that it's complex, and, depending on what you need, can get expensive. The newer stuff seems to be more reliable than the older systems. I'm not using it yet, but I'd advise new users to get Windows 2019. Overall, I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.
I am happy with the current features. The technology has evolved impressively. With Windows 2019, it is possible, to “failover cluster” both on-premises and cloud resources.