Server 2008 replication/backup. What should we do?

[fredted40x]

Hi,

 

So i've got my first job in it working in a school and im getting to know the systems that they have but the thing i have noticed is that there is a single server that does everything except storing of user data.

 

There are NAS drive with hot swap HDD in them that store the users private files but my biggest concern is that there is a single server which handles everything else. If that were to go down then everything would go including curriculum and admin.

 

In our workshop we do have two servers sat that, not even plugged in. Cant say how old they are at the mo but it seems a bit of a waste.

 

Is it possible to replicate the server onto one of these other servers so if the main server were to go down then the other server would kick in? I've never done anything like this before at uni so im learning by doing it.

 

Has anyone got any recommendations on wht we can do as i dont like the current situatiion?

 

Thanks

[denon101]

Well what I would do is look to see if the spare servers can run 2008. If they can set one up and look at setting up DFS. This will make a copy of the dataa on both servers so if one fails you will have redundancy. That would only be for the data. I would personally look to move some of the jobs the single server is doing around. Spread the load so to speak. As at the moment if that goes, well you are sort of stuffed.

[edutech4schools]

Are you a Primary school?

[fredted40x]

Thanks Denon, will have to read about what it backs up.

 

We have five sites, primary and secondary. The server went down this morning leading the whole school without computer access until we got in. This lead the IT manager saying that we need another server so he has sent the other IT Tech off to find a motherboard identical to our existing server so we can get one of our old server up adn running on server 2008 r2.

 

I would like this to be a thing that i can do. Sort of like a mini project that i can learn from.

 

What is possible regarding backup and replocation? If we had active directory U&C and group policy backed up on server 2 then that could keep the school going until we fixed server 1. Is anything like this possible?

 

Thanks

 

 

p.s. We dhave server 2008 enterprise. I've just found out about clustering. No idea if this would help us or not.

Edited September 26, 2011 by fredted40x

[ChrisH]

At a minimum I suppose you need:

2 Servers Both Domain controllers and global catalogue servers and both DFS Name servers.

Set up a DFS Name space.

DHCP on both servers spitting the scope between then. You will need either one to have a pool big enough to be able to give all clients an IP address if need be. Set the reserved IPs for devices to be the same on both servers.

DFS can be used to just point at the NAS or as already mentioned or you can use that to replicate the data to another server as well. If you are thinking along those lines I would make the NAS the preferred target so they go their most of the time as your server probably won't be as fast, unless you get an adequately specced server.

Know how to seize FSMO roles if the other server is definately never ever gonna be switched on again.

Make sure your clients point to both servers for DNS.

There is more and variations on what I have said but that is most of it.