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shawn313

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Disaster recovery - Windows NT/2000

I'm trying to write a disaster recovery plan for our network.  I'm trying to figure out how I could restore a server in the event of a fire or some other catastrophic event.  If we had to restore all of our data to a new machine, would ERD's in Windows NT and the ERD and registry backup from WINNT\REPAIR in Windows 2000 help to restore the server?  Or would the fact that we're using new hardware in the servers make these things useless in that instance?  If these things are useless, I imagine we'd have to make sure we keep a copy of a document which listed share permissions for all the servers offsite so we could manually set those after our recovery.  
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FlamingSword

1) Get another piece of identical HW
2) Copy files to 'backup'
3) Periodically swap the two.

This is handy for upgrades that minimize server downtime, and 'proves' out the backup/contingency plan.

(when they are identical, there are other tricks that can be employed, such as swapping physical parts, boot disks, media, HD, etc to best face troublesome conditions)

> ERD's in Windows NT and the ERD and registry backup from WINNT\REPAIR in Windows 2000 help to restore the server?  

No Way. IMO these do very very little to help anything. But do get some good boot diskettes, and some built in redundancey. If HD is FAT rather that NTFS, at least the boot part, then you achieve alternate means to restore some of the essential files -- contingency -- backup.
despite which ever backup software you use, you'll have to make a full backup (all drives) of your domain controllers and their system state data.  when you do DR, you'll have to make sure that the hardware you'll be using is similar enough to the one in production - at least the hard disk controller.  you can then rebuilt the OS from scratch and then restore everything (all data from all drives and system state).  ERD will be useless then because it's only for repairing an existing machine.

when you do the restore, make sure the DR server has the same name as the production one.  All drive mappings/partitions must also be the same - size doesn't matter.  

You must test it out and make sure the procedure works.

Veritas BackupExec has a useful feature if you're interested.  It's called Intelligent Disaster Recovery (IDR).  You can use it to clone the exact same domain controller as you have in production.
Avatar of shawn313

ASKER

But if our server is physically destroyed by fire or something, and we call Compaq and find out that the server we had is no longer available, does that mean the System State is no good, because restoring the registry will restore all device settings?  Unfortunately, we can't afford to have duplicate servers for everything in case of a failure.
I prefer getting second hard drive, that is also bootable, as my first contingency. Less downtime. Also easier to prove out.
Avatar of SysExpert
See



http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/TechNet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/support/recovery.asp
Windows 2000 Server Disaster Recovery Guidelines

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q202/4/85.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0&qry=how%20to%20load%20default%20VGA%20drivers&rnk=3&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=WIN2000
Description of Safe Boot Mode in Windows 2000 how to add and remove drivers in safe mode.

and also :
contingency and disaster planning - compaq
symantec intro - http://enterprisesecurity.symantec.com/article.cfm?articleid=554&PID=352494&EID=65
This site has a bunch of resources about Disaster plans and examples
 http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=091301FL-DisasterPlan
  Disaster Recovery Journal is a GREAT resource. Check the DR Glossary!
 http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=091301FL-DRJournal
  The University of Toronto also has a good DR Plan. Compare with others:
 http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=091301FL-UTDRPlan

 http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=053101-DisasterVideo
This site has a bunch of resources about Disaster plans and examples
 http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=091301FL-DisasterPlan
  Disaster Recovery Journal is a GREAT resource. Check the DR Glossary!
 http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=091301FL-DRJournal
  The University of Toronto also has a good DR Plan. Compare with others:
 http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=091301FL-UTDRPlan


I hope this helps !
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ritupatel112699

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I'm guessing from the responses that we need to make sure we keep our hardware up to date and that we can procure an identical server if something destroys the original.  Not an ideal solution, but I'll live with it.
shawn313,
many of Compaq Proliant models use similar hardware - array controller, NIC, etc.  I've successfully performed DR on a DL380 and 6400R from an 8500 backup.  If your servers are Compaq Proliant servers, you shouldn't have to worry.