Redundant opinions needed 1

[BobSchleicher]

Currently we have EX2007 running on a dedicated physical server attached to an external drive array (U320).

Can anyone please offer me some opinions on making this option redundant? Buying another server, drive array, cluster, virtulization, or whatever. I am open to any thoughts.

Thanks,

BobSchleicher

 

[Cstorms]

Well you could setup a CCR cluster for real time protection or setup an SCR target that you could send your logs and DB to, and if need be activate it using some manual finesse. What is your familiarity with these options?

Cory

 

[BobSchleicher]

I am familiar with these options but by biggest concern would be zero downtime. Assume the Exchange servers motherboard failed and the part couldn't be replaced for a week.
I would ideally like to it so the end user would never realize that we had a failure anywhere. The motherboard failed and another server pickup automatically.

BobSchleicher

 

[Cstorms]

You would need to setup a CCR cluster then, which is going to be running in Active-Passive mode, when the active node goes down the passive one comes online.

Check out this link for a detailed explanation of what it can do for you..

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124521(EXCHG.80).aspx

HTH

Cory

 

[BobSchleicher]

That is very helpful, thanks!

BobSchleicher

 

[cajuntank]

You could also look at a solution from

http://www.neverfailgroup.com/

They have solutions for file/print, sql, exchange, etc...
Just read about them from a case study. Don't know price or anything like that...might be another option for you.

 

[58sniper]

You can't really do things with zero downtime. You have to be realistic. Some clustering options can only be implemented when the server is built - not after the fact.

You'll also need to test any cluster or failover solution, and that's almost certainly going to entail some downtime until you get it right.

The only truly redundant solution is going to be SCR, with the other node in a remote hot site that's outside your power grid.

Pat Richard
Microsoft Exchange MVP