Windows Server 2008 Backup

Hi Raptor,

What is it exactly you want to mirror? The entire system?
(In some cases it is possible by creating a farm.)
It is a hard (if not impossible) job to run 2 seperate instances of windows where one will overwrite the other one while operating...

If it is only the non-os data you want mirrored this can be done quiet simple with DFS.
This way your server has its data locally and your backupserver also carries a replicated copy.
If, for instance, your machine is a fileserver and reachable by DNS name FILE01 you can simply edit the ipadress in this DNS entry pointing to your backup machine in case of a crash or just when you want to run windows update during production hours on 1.

You could mirror the drive to another hard disk

You just connect a hdd to your server don't configure raid for that hdd.

just do a software raid(i.e. mirroring) from drive management
check these 1 2

You can do the same for C drive. When u do mirroring for OS partition  windows will automatically create an entry in the boot record named "Microsoft Windows Server 2008-secondary plex" to boot from the second HDD.

OR
If you want a hardware to hardware mirror you should install OS in VM and configure using third party software. It will do a complete VM mirror.

If this fails automatically the other one will start working.

Patricksr1972,

Yes, I am wanting to run an exact copy of the first server in case of a total crash we can just swap them out and continue running with as little down time as possible.


Abbasiftt,

I do want a hardware to hardware mirror in the event of another server crash, I want there to be a second in place that we can just switch to and continue to operate......  can you elaborate on the VM and third party software?

Depending on how much downtime is acceptable, you could always buy the identical server and just move the drives over. This would not take long, but would present some downtime.

What are the roles of the current server?

well, a couple hours max but I'd prefer less.  The concern isn't so much with the actual server going down as it is with the hard drives failing, what I want to do is have a redundant server standing by with mirrored or as close to such as I can get so if anything goes wrong with the first I can just switch to the backup and give me time to fix the main server.  it is running at a doctors office who see's about a hundred or so patients a day so redundancy is critical with zero tolerance for data loss.

Is there any software out there that will do this for me??  I am getting desperate to find a way to get this done.

Well the ideal thing to do here is get a storage solution for the VM's, then have two front end servers to serve them.

What you could do is use backup software to just backup the VM's to a share on the other server, that way if it went down you could just mount the VM's on the other server.

http://www.symantec.com/products/data-backup-software

Symantec has some great backup products, I have used them for years and they work great, but there is thousands of options out there for just backing up VM's.

As we have left the idea of hardware mirroring i believe the best option is creating a DFS share with two identical machines, have the VM installed on this DFS.

Both machines will hold a copy and while server1 is modified so will server2.

Or am i thinking to easely now?

I do not think DFS will work for this, the vm file will always be mounted and DFS will not replicate it on 2008R2 until the file is not accessed for a set amount of time. I don't think it will ever replicate.

Hmm i appreciate your comment but do you get the idea of DFS?

Yes I do, and I have set up DFS on three servers that are currently in production use. I am totally unaware that it can actually replicate files that are open. I am pretty sure that the file has to be closed and then it is replicated after being closed (after a set amount of time). As far as I know DFS even with RDC does not use true block level replication.

But I could be wrong :S   guess ill start a ticket on that one lol

I hate to sound like a complete idiot here but here goes....what is VM?  I may just be having a brain fart.

Hi raptor.

 We are discussing a virtual machine here which has its virtual harddisk on a dfs for redundancy reasons.

OK, after doing some digging around it does seem like DFS will not work, but it is suggested to use hyper-replica.

http://windowsitpro.com/hyper-v/use-dfs-r-replicate-windows-server-2012-hyper-v-virtual-machines

http://windowsitpro.com/hyper-v/q-how-do-i-set-hyper-v-replica

so I would basically go with  Patricksr1972 suggestion, but use hyper replica instead of DFS :) hope this helps!


IM SORRY, this is actually only in server 2012, let me find you another option.

You could try Hyper-V failover Clustering.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732181(v=ws.10).aspx


But I am getting a little off subject here.

-if you just want the data on the server and none of the applications, or active VM's just use DFS.

-if you want the entire server fully replicated, virtualize the first server, set up a second and use Hyper-V Failover Clustering.

As suggested by MTCIT you can do it by hyper-v failover clustering.

I looked into the hyper-v Failover option however the server runs 32bit version and it is Server 2008 Standard, not R2.  

Is there any other way possible to have the entire contents of server 1 mirrored to server 2?????

Doesnt necessarly need to be in real time.......I am thinking now that I can use Server Back-up and just make back-ups to that server each night???

Take a look at this product. http://www.emc.com/storage/autostart.htm

This is the product formerly known as Vinca Standby Server, which I have seen and used back in my Novell NetWare days.  The way it worked was by maintaining a direct copy of everything that happened on the original server by a direct link between the two on separate interfaces.  When the first server failed, the second server would immediately become active.

no solution found, closing question