fn_hadr_backup_is_preferred_replica always returning zero

Question

I'm setting up a SQL Server 2012 "Always On" availability group and I am having issues with the backup maintenance plan.

I've tracked the problem down to fn_hadr_backup_is_preferred_replica always returning zero

I created a test database and ran the function, it returned 1. I then added the database to the availability group and the function returned zero. I've tried every option in Backup Preferences and in all cases on both primary and secondary instances, it returns zero. It never returns 1.

Answer 1

We discovered the problem. It relates to changing the server name. The network engineer who built the cluster changed this value after the build. We started from scratch and it now works.