Exchange Disaster Recovery Solutions

[chif123]

I currently have one exchange server and I do daily backups on it, however though i am interested in knowing how feasible it is to copy over the exchange databases and information store to another computer with different hardware was a possible solution. Unfortunately we don't have the budget for setting up a cluster. Any other disaster recovery ideas are very welcome!

 

[wallst32]

You can use what's called a recover server for different hardware platform:

http://www.winnetmag.com/MicrosoftExchangeOutlook/Article/ArticleID/27489/27489.html

 

[chif123]

Thanks guys
I believe that the article posted by wallst32 is really helpful interesting to see that one can feasibly have both servers online at the same time but in different forests, or am I interpreting it wrong ?

 

[wallst32]

chif: The begining of the article states that you can use a recovery server to 1) replace an existing server in case of diaster, or 2) restore your dbs to another server and pull data out without disrupting your live environment. The focus of the article is more for option 2 than 1.

When using option 2, you would use a different forest so it does not interfere with your live server. Let's say somebody deletes some messages, needs them back; you can restore to this server, exmerge out from it, exmerge into the live.

For option 1, it's basically performing a recovery, but you at least have the OS installed. You would still need to rename the server, join the domain, and install Exchange in disaster recovery mode.