I have been reading some white papers from Microsoft on backup and recovery options. One in particular about having a standby server with the same firmware/hardware is the way i want to go. I am checking to see if anyone else is using/has used or has in mind using the option? If so what steps would you take if your E2K server crashed or data got corrupted and you had a standby recovery server?
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Backup/Restore on Exchange 2000 options 1
- Thread starter mikesid
- Start date
That is for hardware failure. Install Win2K and harden it off. Do NOT dcpromo. Leave it as TEST or SPARE or whatever.
In the event of server failure you need to remove the old server from the LAN, solve your AD worries (old PC and new PC have same name) then install Exchange as DR and restore from backup.
<signature for rent>
In the event of server failure you need to remove the old server from the LAN, solve your AD worries (old PC and new PC have same name) then install Exchange as DR and restore from backup.
<signature for rent>
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- #3
Hi!
The easiest and probably the best way to do this is to Image your Exchange server and put that image on your recovery server. If both servers have identical Hardware, you should not have any problems. Personally, I prefer Symantec Ghost Corporate edition. It works fine and creates the images fast (plus compresses them). Of course, there are different Imaging solutions on the market.
NetoMeter
The easiest and probably the best way to do this is to Image your Exchange server and put that image on your recovery server. If both servers have identical Hardware, you should not have any problems. Personally, I prefer Symantec Ghost Corporate edition. It works fine and creates the images fast (plus compresses them). Of course, there are different Imaging solutions on the market.
NetoMeter
- Thread starter
- #4
netometer, a few question if you don't mind.
1. Will the image software take into account the SCSI drives? We have drive image pro that needs a boot disk but because we have SCSI drives it does not allow a third party SCSI driver to be installed during boot up.
2. Since it will be an image of the existing server i imagine that it will carry over all AD info, computer name, etc. So that all we have to do is boot up the recovery server and log into the network?
Thank you for your suggestions. It is greatly appreciated.
1. Will the image software take into account the SCSI drives? We have drive image pro that needs a boot disk but because we have SCSI drives it does not allow a third party SCSI driver to be installed during boot up.
2. Since it will be an image of the existing server i imagine that it will carry over all AD info, computer name, etc. So that all we have to do is boot up the recovery server and log into the network?
Thank you for your suggestions. It is greatly appreciated.
Hi Mikesid!
1. The important question is whether yiu can see the Partitions when you boot under Dos.
I've been able to ghost Dell servers with PERC controllers (the hardware RAID is trnasparent for Dos and you see it as 1 physicall Hard drive for example), HP servers with different SmartArray controllers, Different AHA SCSI controllers etc.
What type is your SCSI controller? Can you try to boot from DOS floppy and check what FDISK can see?
2. Yes, it is an exact image of your system. With Symantec Ghost you can read your images and restore just certain files or folders from them, in case you don't want to restore the whole image. As a matter of fact it is a good idea to have an image of your servers before you do an upgrade or a major change of your network Configuration.
1. The important question is whether yiu can see the Partitions when you boot under Dos.
I've been able to ghost Dell servers with PERC controllers (the hardware RAID is trnasparent for Dos and you see it as 1 physicall Hard drive for example), HP servers with different SmartArray controllers, Different AHA SCSI controllers etc.
What type is your SCSI controller? Can you try to boot from DOS floppy and check what FDISK can see?
2. Yes, it is an exact image of your system. With Symantec Ghost you can read your images and restore just certain files or folders from them, in case you don't want to restore the whole image. As a matter of fact it is a good idea to have an image of your servers before you do an upgrade or a major change of your network Configuration.
- Thread starter
- #6
Yes, we use the Perc hardware. We have a Dell Poweredge 2650 that our E2K server sits in and it came with that hardware. I have never tried a DOS boot disk beause i assumed it would not see the drives (we have 2 mirrored, C:, and 3 Raid 5, D
. I will have to try using a boot disk and test. Any particular way in creating the boot disk other tham format A: /s?
. I will have to try using a boot disk and test. Any particular way in creating the boot disk other tham format A: /s?Mikesid:
My personal opinion is don't use Ghost on your DELL hardware. Although I have used ghost since it was in 0.x rev.; it has crashed my servers on me the last two times I tried to use it on Dell/PERC controllers. Was it Ghost or the PERC?.?.?
for a 'back in the day story' - I've spoken to the guy that wrote the original ghost code... very interesting guy!
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My boss won't pop for the spare hardware so I have one server that I use for recovering to (sql, exchange, etc).
Follow MS's recommended procedures for recovering email to another server. Take a look at the disaster recovery for ms exchange 2000 server (sorry don't know the URL...). In there are the directions for recovering your databases to another server.
It's worked for me.
number one suggestion: practice.
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good luck.
eric
My personal opinion is don't use Ghost on your DELL hardware. Although I have used ghost since it was in 0.x rev.; it has crashed my servers on me the last two times I tried to use it on Dell/PERC controllers. Was it Ghost or the PERC?.?.?
for a 'back in the day story' - I've spoken to the guy that wrote the original ghost code... very interesting guy!
---
My boss won't pop for the spare hardware so I have one server that I use for recovering to (sql, exchange, etc).
Follow MS's recommended procedures for recovering email to another server. Take a look at the disaster recovery for ms exchange 2000 server (sorry don't know the URL...). In there are the directions for recovering your databases to another server.
It's worked for me.
number one suggestion: practice.
---
good luck.
eric
- Thread starter
- #8
I also bought Exchange 24/7 by sybex Publishing and I am reading it. Very good info. I also downloaded the E2K disaster white paper from Microsoft a little while and read that. I am just trying to find that fastest way to restore data, but I think i have to accept the fact that if something happens it will take a little bit of time to get things up and running. Either by restoring from a backup or giving the users a temp server to work on while we fix the issue.
Thanx again for the tips.
Thanx again for the tips.
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