dany2010 Posted January 10, 2012 Posted January 10, 2012 Hi, So we've now got our new network up and running and we are looking to utilise one of the older servers again as a backup server so if the main one goes down we can get the backup server up in a matter of hours. Our main server is currently the main controller and doing pretty much everything, GPO, AD, SIMS.net etc. This is too risky for my liking but the manager wants it this way. I have tried restoring the backup server with an image created using windows serer backup on the main server but it failed complaining that efi and bios are incompatinle. What would really be nice if the two server could act like a raid so changes get copied to both servers but im not sure if its possible to copy absolutly everything so we could switch servers without anyone knowing. The easiest way would be to use the backups of the main server but as mentioned this doesnt even try to work. Im guessing there is a way to do something like this. Could anyone point me in the right direction please. The biggest problem would probably be applications such as sims as they are not standard windows features. Many thanks. Dan
somabc Posted January 10, 2012 Posted January 10, 2012 (edited) I would be interested in everyones thoughts on the best method but in the short term, join the backup server to the domain so that replication can occur and use robocopy or something to sync the data. You could also setup DFS on any shares. Edited January 10, 2012 by somabc
jamesreedersmith Posted January 10, 2012 Posted January 10, 2012 AD, GPOS and logons are easy - just make both servers DC's and Global Catalog servers, files are quite easy if you set up a DFS and replicate the data using that, Sims is harder, perhaps a script to replicate the data overnight to the other server and just a repoint of the .ini if needed. Printers can be set up on both servers and just a change of a GP to repoint should one server fail. 1
mattx Posted January 10, 2012 Posted January 10, 2012 Doubletake Business Continuity Disaster Recovery Solutions & High Availability Software Have this working and tested between our London and New York offices.
dany2010 Posted January 11, 2012 Author Posted January 11, 2012 AD, GPOS and logons are easy - just make both servers DC's and Global Catalog servers, files are quite easy if you set up a DFS and replicate the data using that, Sims is harder, perhaps a script to replicate the data overnight to the other server and just a repoint of the .ini if needed. Printers can be set up on both servers and just a change of a GP to repoint should one server fail. This looks to be a good free solution. Would anything need to be installed onto the backup server before it would start replicating AD? At the minute its a clean install with no features or roles installed. When we add the role of global catalogue server is there a guide on how to strt replication AD? Would this do GPO's as well?
dhicks Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 I have tried restoring the backup server with an image created using windows serer backup on the main server but it failed complaining that efi and bios are incompatinle. This is why people use virtual machines - transferring a virtual machine between physical hosts is easy. DRBD will mirror disk volumes over the network in a similar fashion to RAID-1, and is just right for things like SIMS, but as has been pointed out Active Directory has its own replication mechanism. Also, an exact mirror of file areas is rarley very useful - you most often want to restore a file from a few days or weeks back, so a backup server that can store multiple versions of files will probably be more suitible. 1
dany2010 Posted January 11, 2012 Author Posted January 11, 2012 I agree, a virtual machine would be ideal. Unfortunatly everything was set up with regards to sims when i got here and the manager wouldnt be keen on changing the setup as its working. Not sure why but the idea of virtual machines doesnt seem to go down well here. At some point today i will be creating a virtual network to test everything out on before implementing onto the main network. Before setting the backup server as a global catalogue would i need to install AD or anything? What about the GPO's? Will they copy over? How would you initialise the replication?
edutech4schools Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 add your server to the domain run dcpromo after that it will automatically copy ad and gpos 1
SHimmer45 Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Also, an exact mirror of file areas is rarley very useful - you most often want to restore a file from a few days or weeks back, so a backup server that can store multiple versions of files will probably be more suitible. achieve able using robocopy/xcopy to a different location on a backup box each day or is there a sleeker solution?
zag Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Virtualization.. virtulization... virtulization..! But if you want to do it the hard way... You can replicate the main file server with a simple xcopy command. Its surprisingly effective! Sims is easy enough as well, just setup a new SQL server instance and use something like backupexec to make regular restores to it.
edutech4schools Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 One thing I would be interested in is if the main DC server goes down is it easier to get all the rolls working on the backup dc or is it easier to restore a system state backup to the main DC.
CyberNerd Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Very easy to do on *nixes, but for windows you'd probably need a virtualisation clone
Arthur Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) You will be able to do this using Hyper-V Replica once Windows Server 8 is released later this year. http://i.imgur.com/HNuMc.jpg Edited January 11, 2012 by Arthur 1
PhilipCoakes Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Very easy to do on *nixes, but for windows you'd probably need a virtualisation clone I have recently been using Computer Associates ARCserve D2D, and I have to say it's very effective. It will back up a live server to an image hosted on a network share, which can be updated on a regular schedule - hourly if you wanted. This image can be restored to "bare metal" from bootable media. Best regards Phil
dhicks Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 achieve able using robocopy/xcopy to a different location on a backup box each day or is there a sleeker solution? Yes, although if you can use deduplication of some kind then you'll be able to store more backups. Either use a file system that does deduplication or, each day, clone the previous day's backup folder using hard links instead of copying files and use a tool that just replaces changed files to copy from your live file store to your backup. I know rsync does this, but robocopy/xcopy probably do too.
dany2010 Posted January 11, 2012 Author Posted January 11, 2012 Just created a little virtual network consisting of two servers. I setup the first and then joined and dcpromo'd the second backup server. i then turned the main server off and created a new user on the backup and could log in with this new account so it seems to talk to both servers. With the main server off however, if i try going into group policy management it says it cannot connect to the server. Is it possible to check if this is replicating? It also looks like DNS is replicated as well. Would this be correct?
bio Posted January 12, 2012 Posted January 12, 2012 VMware has a solution for this : VM Fault Tolerance bio..
dany2010 Posted January 12, 2012 Author Posted January 12, 2012 Thanks Bio, unfortunately we are out of budget for a few months so looking for a free/cheap solution for now. Tried recovering the c volume from a backup of our main server and booted from it but it gets to loading screen and just crashes and restarts. Probably drivers which I believe there isn't a solution for. Will probably continue with server replication by joining the server to the domain and dc promoting it. Need to look into how to promote it to the main server if the original main server is not repairable.
edutech4schools Posted January 12, 2012 Posted January 12, 2012 It also looks like DNS is replicated as well. Would this be correct? Yep thats right With the main server off however, if i try going into group policy management it says it cannot connect to the server. Is it possible to check if this is replicating? I'll do the same and see what happens on my servers when I am next at the school. Need to look into how to promote it to the main server if the original main server is not repairable. Its called seizing rolls. Not done it myself so if we both look into it and post back that would be handy. 1
dany2010 Posted January 12, 2012 Author Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) Thanks edutech. Just shut down the main server on my test network and managed to seize the FSMO on the backup server. Followed Using Ntdsutil.exe to transfer or seize FSMO roles to a domain controller. It tried to safe tranfer the role but that failed as the main server was not contactable so it just seized the role. Command result shown below. The operation masters screen now shows the rid master as the backup server. Am now going to start the main server up again and see what happens as it still thinks its the master. Edited January 12, 2012 by dany2010
ChrisH Posted January 12, 2012 Posted January 12, 2012 You should only seize roles when you don't expect to turn the old server back on again.
dany2010 Posted January 12, 2012 Author Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) Yeah, but just wanted to what happens . Update: Was a bit boring. The main server realised what had happened and it shows that the backup server is now the rid master. Would we need to transfer the FSMO roles if we dont plan on making changes to the structure and just allow users to log in until the main server comes back online? Max 1 week of this. Edited January 12, 2012 by dany2010
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