bes 5.0 ha sql mirror placement of witness server
 

hi

i have 2 sites, our office and our DR site

i have 1 bes 5 primary server with sql server 2008 r2 principal besmgt database running in our office

i have 1 bes 5 standby server with sql server 2008r2 with besmgt mirrored.

i have also setup a 3rd sql express 2008 r2 in our DR site and use this as a witness server.

i am debating whether to put the witness server in our DR site or our office.

for instance if it is in our office and our office site goes down i cannot failover to the DR site sql server so i placed it in our DR site which means that SQL and bes both failover automatically.

but on the other hand this creates a situation if the DR site becomes inaccessible the principal sql database detects that both the mirror and witness server are not accessible and it goes into a standby mode. luckily the bes server remains operational even with the sql database being in the state it is in.

we only have 21 users so there is no way i am going to run sql and bes on separate servers and it would also still not solve the issue where to place the witness server.

my current thinking is to keep it in the DR site as this will:
a) enable me to failover automatically to the DR site if needed
b) if DR site goes down the bes server in the office still remains up and running even though the besmgt database goes into a standby state, i guess as long as you do not restart bes services it should be okay.

could you let me know where you have placed your witness server.

i do have an option btw to place the witness server at a 3rd site completely separate from the office and the DR site so perhaps that is the best solution?

cheers