Voting nodes are not available when you try to use AlwaysOn availability groups in SQL Server 2012

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Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

You have installed two Microsoft SQL Server 2012 instances on a server that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 that is in a failover cluster.
Both of the SQL Server instances have AlwaysOn availability groups configured.
You have added a file share witness in order to achieve quorum.

In this scenario, you experience the following issues:

Issue 1

When you view Cluster Quorum Information in SQL Server Management Studio, the value in the Vote Count column for both of the instances is Not Available.

Note You cannot achieve quorum if the voting nodes are not available. We do not recommend this situation in a production environment.

Issue 2

When you try to run the New Availability Group wizard in order to create a new AlwaysOn availability group, you may receive a warning message that resembles the following:

The current WSFC cluster quorum vote configuration is not recommended for this availability group.

Issue 3

When you try to query the following sys.dm_hadr_cluster_members dynamic management view, the value that is contained in the number_of_quorum_votes column may be NULL:

Select member_name, number_of_quorum_votes from sys.dm_hadr_cluster_memberselect member_name, number_of_quorum_votes from sys.dm_hadr_cluster_members

For example, the query result resembles the following:

member_name         number_of_quorum_votes
SqlNode1            NULL
SqlNode2            NULL
File Share Witness           1

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Cause

These issues occur because of a known issue in Windows Server Failover Clustering.

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Resolution

To resolve this issue, apply the hotfix from the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article on all affected computers:

2494036 A hotfix is available to let you configure a cluster node that does not have quorum votes in Windows Server 2008 and in Windows Server 2008 R2

Note You must restart the computer after you apply the hotfix.

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