When you select the SFW Microsoft Failover Clustering support option during installation, a message appears to remind you that the maximum quorum arbitration time can be adjusted to ensure optimal functioning of SFW dynamic volumes with Microsoft Failover Clustering.

The quorum arbitration time setting is used to set the limit of the time period that is allowed for quorum arbitration. Quorum arbitration is the process that occurs when the controlling node of the cluster is no longer active and other nodes of the cluster attempt to gain control of the quorum resource and thus control of the cluster.

The advantage of a dynamic quorum is that it can be mirrored to provide fault tolerance for the quorum resource.

The optimal quorum arbitration time setting for a dynamic quorum is:

Maximum time - 120 seconds

To specify this setting, type the following command in the command line:

cluster.exe /prop QuorumArbitrationTimeMax=120

If you do not plan to use a dynamic quorum and instead want to retain the quorum resource on a basic disk, then you may want to specify the default settings that Windows server recommends for a basic quorum.

The Windows server quorum arbitration time setting for a basic quorum is:

Maximum time - 60 seconds

To reset the setting, type the following command in the command line:

cluster.exe /prop QuorumArbitrationTimeMax=60

The advantage of changing the setting back is that it speeds up the quorum arbitration process.