Add a server?

[philote]

We currently have one Win2k Server to handle AD, DNS, DHCP, file serving, and a few internal web pages. It has hot-swappable RAID drives but no other redundancy and the manufacturer's support has just expired. I'm concerned about something happening to this server, causing significant down-time. Is there a good way to prevent or reduce this down-time? I wanted to add another server to assist with some of these tasks and at least allow AD and DNS to function if the main server dies. But I didn't know how we could get to those files on the main server. We back up every night so I guess as long as the backup server has a tape drive we could restore from the previous night. But I'd rather have a way to duplicate files in real-time if possible. Any ideas, suggestions, comments??

Oh, and if we add a server, would it be a problem to add a Win2k3 server or should it be Win2k?

 

[aftertaf]

best bet is a 2nd DC

install a server (either version), make it dcpromoed, add dns services and include it in dhcp options for fault tolerance.

as for the data files, you can set up a domain DFS and itll replicate in realteim between the two.

Aftertaf

"Solutions are not the answer." - Richard Nixon

 

[philote]

I thought DFS was to only simply the file structure for multiple file servers. I didn't think it would actually replicate data. Am I wrong?

 

[mvvilleza]

What's the version of your windows? Enterprise edition comes with clustering, try looking at it.

 

[GlenJohnson]

A second domain controller is the way to go. Since you back up nightly, if something happens to dc1, you could take the backup and load it on dc2, in theory. The biggest thing you need to worry about, is the ability for users to logon to the network, and if you're using dhcp, get an ip address. The 2nd dc would handle that no problem. Good luck.

Glen A. Johnson
"Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history there could be no concept of humanity"
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), German-born Swiss writer
Tek-Tips in Chicago IL

 

[philote]

I wish clustering were an option but we don't have the Enterprise edition.

Thanks for the advice, Glen. Logging onto the network is an issue but my bigger problem is accessing the files. Loading from a backup would definitely be better than the down-time involved in fixing a server. My company is a wholesaler/distributor so any orders or financial data we have input during the day would be lost and could be difficult to re-enter.

I may see if we would be to get similar hardware to our existing server so we could take one of the hot-swap RAID drives out and load it into the new server. That way we could keep all the data from the current day as well. However, I don't know if that's feasible at all. Has anyone ever done something like this?

 

[GlenJohnson]

I've heard of machines with multiple hard drives so if one goes bad, the info is saved on the others, so you just replace the bad one, and you are up and running. One thing you need to address though, is what are you doing with other hardware problems that might arise. I had a brand new server installed, and shortly after it was added to the domain, users could no longer log onto the domain, so there info was essentially lost. Turns out the new server, which had 2 nics, had one going bad. The nic going bad kept sending out more and more bad packets, till the network was no longer usable. Just something else to keep you awake at night. (Keep extra hardware handy. I realized what was going on when the users could log on to the network when I was re-booting the new server.)

Glen A. Johnson
"Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history there could be no concept of humanity"
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), German-born Swiss writer
Tek-Tips in Chicago IL

 

[philote]

Glen, that's exactly the type of thing I'm talking about. Our one server does have the multiple hard drives (RAID) which can be swapped out very easily if one goes bad. BUT, what if the RAID controller, power supply, etc. goes bad?

I just did some more research and found that Windows Server has something called 'File Replication Service' (FRS). This looks like exactly what I need to keep data available if I have a second server. Can anyone shed some light on how well this works or common problems? Also, can anyone tell me about Robocopy? That appears to be another alternative but not as easy to use.