Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of bmtech
bmtech

asked on

Creating a Fallback position for an SBS 2003 installation.

We are a small company (of 10 people):
At the moment we are running SBS 4.5a, we use the Exchange 5.5 & SQL Server 7.0 products quite extensively. We also use (at the moment) Veritas SBS Backup. We will need to purchase the Premium Edition of SBS 2003.

Now I appreciate that this question is to some extent already being discussed. However what I would like to do is confine the discussion to fall back/failover.

At the moment we currently have 2 pieces of identical hardware (DELL Power Edge 1300's) so I can without too much hassle flip-flop between the 2 units, this means that given a serious outtage on one unit I can within (about) 2 hours have the main service up and running again.

Now given that SBS2003 having the same licensing issues as WinXP being effectivly keyed to the hardware, my former scenario is less viable.

So assuming that I have 2 sets of identical Server hardware, and I have a daily backup of the entire facility (or around 12GB fyi) on DDS4 (probably going to change this to AIT2/3), and 1 Server unit suffers terminal failure what would be the quickest or best way to get our service up and running again? To make things simple I am assuming that for the interim downtime period there will be no access to Server resources.

I would ideally like to avoid using multiple versions of Windows (eg Windows Server 2003), partly from the issue of cost, and also from the view point of complexity. I am not against running a (Single user) version of Windows (say W2K or WinXP) on the Server to act as Restore Organiser/Manager.

Thank you in advance.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of kelo501
kelo501

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial