michel lane Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 We are currently looking into server redundancy. Does anyone on here have knowledge on clustering or domain replication - running 2 servers at once if the primary were to go down the secondary would take over ?. Is there any tools are documentation that can help. I would appricate some help in this field greatfully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobUK Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 We run clustered Sql servers, you need a SAN or similar in order to maintain data independance... What are you running on the server? If it is just a domain controller/ file server then replication is the way to go... Let me know you application and I can help more Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robin Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 What is it you are trying to introduce redundancy for? Shared data, windows domains or applications like exchange SQL etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 Also consider the alternative of running VMWare with vCenter and HA to solve your uptime worries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michel lane Posted October 24, 2009 Author Share Posted October 24, 2009 thanks for everyones reply. what i am trying to achieve : windows sbs2003 premium . I would like to provide a solution where this server exchange / sql / user accounts /data / is duplicated on another server which is not the same spec. If there was a problem with a power pack or mainboard, all users would long onto the other server. thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 I'm not sure if it is possible to cluster SBS2k3 - aren't there limitations on the number of servers on the same network or something inherent within SBS? They want you to buy the full server products for these more advanced features. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michel lane Posted October 24, 2009 Author Share Posted October 24, 2009 what about a third party package ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobUK Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 You also need an identical hardware setup for clustering... But as already mentioned you won't be able to cluster with SBS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 what about a third party package ? What's your primary goal? Just to have a back you can quickly get online? How about Acronis solutions and some spare hardware? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michel lane Posted October 24, 2009 Author Share Posted October 24, 2009 we are using acronis at the moment, and have simulated a restore and on this system, it takes around 2 hours and the hardware has to be the same. I need to try and find a system that changes over immediately. what methods work at the moment ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 and the hardware has to be the same. Not with Universal Restore it doesn't. We've replaced a few servers with temporary high end workstations of completely different spec whilst we've upgraded or upgraded them. 2 hours isn't bad IMHO, in fact that's pretty darn good for a small business I reckon. We always get these kind of requests from management at clients that want ultimate protection for small business prices. What's your budget? If you need it almost instant you'll need a shared storage array to start with - that in itself is big £££'s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 We use Doubletake for real time replication and immediate fail over of Exchange2007. We are looking to extend that so SQL server and file shares shortly. But we are also looking at everRun and Neverfail as possible alternatives as the licencing is better on those products. Doubletake likes the remote server to be the same spec but not essential I belive. As others have said, look at Vmware Vsphere. It will allow you a much better fail over solution but would be best when run with a SAN. Dell do a good SAN solution that takes about an hour to setup as opposed to days with most SANs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michel lane Posted October 24, 2009 Author Share Posted October 24, 2009 The simulation was done on a site with 30 work stations and 3 vpn's from various sites. Budget on this job would be around £7000. can you direct me to the website of the package you use ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 me? We use http://www.doubletake.com/uk/Pages/default.aspx and the other two we are considering are http://www.marathontechnologies.com/high_availability_software_everRun2G.html http://www.neverfailgroup.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michel lane Posted October 24, 2009 Author Share Posted October 24, 2009 thanks ... ill have a look into this . what about you pete ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michel lane Posted October 24, 2009 Author Share Posted October 24, 2009 "San" are abit new to me, could you direct me to some useful documentation ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jevansio Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 Michel, me & Hodge are coming over tomorrow, we will sort it for you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 thanks ... ill have a look into this . what about you pete ? Nice to see you have a sensible budget. I'm swayed towards the VM solution - but only because I've no experience of Johns suggestions and we've just become VMWare Professional Solution Providers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 "San" are abit new to me, could you direct me to some useful documentation ? SAN is the big thing at the moment. It is a Storage Area Network. It is basically a load of hard drives in a single enclosure, with hardware and software to manage all the disks as one big unit. All the servers then talk to it over fibre or i-scsi and use those as their data drives. VMware loves a SAN because you can run the whole server in a virtual environment, and with vSphere you can actually migrate a running server from one physical machine to another real time and with no downtime. It also means if your primary server goes pop you use other physical servers to run that virtual server. These are the Dell SANs I mentioned, but they would blow your budget apart http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/business/Storage/equallogic/ct.aspx?refid=equallogic&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jevansio Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 SAN's are soooo 2008 (late), Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 I never know what to call storage arrays now. iSCSI, SAN, NAS etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michel lane Posted October 25, 2009 Author Share Posted October 25, 2009 So this VMware, If i were to take a snapshot of the server using acronis , can i install it on another machine with vmware on it ? how would this work with the hardware being different ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 If you want the budget option, then what about an iscsi setup based on some open source software.... Not going to be commercially bullet proof, but may fit requirements and budgets. SANs are attached at storage controller level NASs are attached at the network level That said these days the systems are multifunctional and the lines are VERY blurred.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 So this VMware, If i were to take a snapshot of the server using acronis , can i install it on another machine with vmware on it ? how would this work with the hardware being different ? Not sure what Aconis is, but you can take a VMware Physical to Virtual snapshot (PtoV) of a real live server (say a HP DL380) and it will create that as a virtual machine to run in its own software. Then if your main server fails you can run the virtual server up and people can connect to that. However you either need a SAN for your business data or to run a program like Doubletake to replicate the data real time to the virtual machine. The range of possible options is huge. We have taken the decision to just use physical servers as a fail over and replicate real time with Doubletake as we dont have the time or skills to start down the VMware road yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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