Mirroring 2 Servers

[fRAiLtY-]

Hi all,

My company has a HP Proliant ML150 tower server thats going to be a secondary domain controller on a new network/domain. We intend on purchasing a new box to be the primary domain controller. In our day to day business applications we use SQL Server, Active Directory, DHCP and DNS.

Once this new server is in and set we will be rebuilding the Proliant to act as a backup. However what we'd like to do is have them mirrored so in the event of a system critical failure on the new box, the Proliant could take over in the quickest timeframe and keep the business running whilst the new box is repaired.

What would be the best hardware or software configuration to allow this and what are things to be aware of when doing so? My MD suggested one RAID array to service both machines, but I see this as a single point of failure and not a clever idea.

Any suggestions would be great! Both boxes will be running Windows Server 2008 Standard with 25 user CALS.

Cheers.

 

[chesteracorgi]

A RAID 1 array would protect against the hardware failure on a single drive (or RAID 0 array). So a RAID 1 on the new machine (or a RAID 10 or other redundent varient) would provide against hardware failure on the "original media." This, however, does not provide against a malware failure or attack. For that you need periodic backup to establish restore points for yur system & data. The frequency of such restore points will vary with your needs: most enterprises can do with daily backups, others need more frequent backups, up to continual backup. The more frequent the backup the greated the load on your entire system.

Not knowing your requirements, I would suggest a RAID 1 array on the new machine with a daily backup to the old Proliant, also set in a RAID 1 configuration. That provides with double redundency hardware backup and sufficient malware backup (keeping in mind that you maintain both firewall(s) and anti-viral software). The Proliant should be maintained a pure server back-up with logged monthly (at least 6 months) weekly (4 weeks) and daily (7) backups against failure.

 

[ValentinaD]

Hi all,

My company has a HP Proliant ML150 tower server thats going to be a secondary domain controller on a new network/domain. We intend on purchasing a new box to be the primary domain controller. In our day to day business applications we use SQL Server, Active Directory, DHCP and DNS.

Once this new server is in and set we will be rebuilding the Proliant to act as a backup. However what we'd like to do is have them mirrored so in the event of a system critical failure on the new box, the Proliant could take over in the quickest timeframe and keep the business running whilst the new box is repaired.

What would be the best hardware or software configuration to allow this and what are things to be aware of when doing so? My MD suggested one RAID array to service both machines, but I see this as a single point of failure and not a clever idea.

Any suggestions would be great! Both boxes will be running Windows Server 2008 Standard with 25 user CALS.

Cheers.

My thoughts are to make the Proliant take a "backup server" role for it is the safest and most guaranteed way to install backup software on each client and point them to backup to the server. Not to mention that each client will have his own Disaster Recovery image which is not a hard drive image (meaning it is not a sector by sector backup) that will consume large size but rather a file by file backup that can be allocated for each client in the backup server. I personally use a backup called Genie Timeline due to the fact that they contain file versioning backup (incremental) as well as their good job on DR. Here is the link if you were intrigued to find out more : http://www.genie9.com/store/store.aspx