SQL Clustering Preferred Owners I noticed that in the sql failover clustering under the possible owners none of the nodes has been checked, I have a two node cluster does that mean in the event of failover it will failover to any of the active nodes. Whats is the difference if both of the nodes are checked vs if both of the nodes are unchecked as possible owners.
I noticed that in the sql failover clustering under the possible owners none of the nodes has been checked, I have a two node cluster does that mean in the event of failover it will failover to any of the active nodes.


You only have two nodes. If there is a failover... there is only one node to fail to, so having preferred owners set is... kind of a wash. It doesn't get you anything, to be quite honest.


  Whats is the difference if both of the nodes are checked vs if both of the nodes are unchecked as possible owners. 


In a two node cluster there is no difference. There is only one other node to go to so it doesn't make much sense.

Now, assume you had an X node cluster where X is > 2 and you're still using SQL FCI's (Note: AGs work differently, don't check or uncheck these values).

Now, if you choose "Move service to best possible..." it'll go to a preferred first, additionally if there were a fail over it'd move to a preferred first as well. Since it's all about preference and not about actual possible owners, having a preference set is unlikely going to really change anything, in my honest opinion.

Some will argue about fail back, which I don't like to enable and requires there to be a cluster event for failback to occur anyway... so it's a wash.