Server set up for a small business with redundancy
Hello, so I've been asked to put together a proposal for a small accountants practice. Around 10 staff and 15 PCs.
They're currently using Windows 10 peer to peer networking and it's a bit creaky,
They'd like to upgrade to a proper server setup. They are already on M365.
No problem, I would normally just spec the server and put on Server 2019, one VM for DC DHCP/DNS etc., one for file storage.
One of the partners asked me if it would be possible to specify a "backup" server as well. He said his last company had something like this. Basically another box which was a "carbon copy" (his words) of the main server, so, should the first server fall over, then staff could seamlessly work off the second box instead.
How feasible is this and are there any suggestions as to how I'd go about it please?
Many thanks
Alex
ASKER
So I will need;
2 x servers
2 x WS2019 Standard licenses
20 x CAL licenses (10 for each box).
I do a physical install on the first server (call it HVHOST). Then a Hyper V DC (DC) and a Hyper V fileserver (SERVER).
Then a physical install on the second server (call it HVHOST2). Then do the replication.
Does this then mean that there will be 2 identical DC's and SERVERs on the network, or do the machines on the second server only become visible after failover? What is the mechanism behind failover, does it kick in automatically or does it need manual intervention?
Many thanks
Alex
Replicating VMs in Hyper-V has one VM "powered on" and the replica "powered off"
While I find replication generally easy, I've been working with Hyper-V for more than a decade and replica has been around ALMOST as long. I would strongly recommend setting up a test environment and running through it a little before doing this for a client. I don't think it takes that long to setup/test/understand, but you should get yourself familiar with how things look and work between the servers. And how to fail over. While no one is going to become an expert in 4 hours, 4 hours should be sufficient to get you comfortable with the basics.
it is also possible to mix the solution, as, anyway, you will need a Windows License for each server.
So, Two VM on the first HyperV : One for the DC, other for the FileSystem Server
And two VM on the second HyperV: Another DC, another FileServer replicating data (With DFS).
With 2 active domain controllers, you have the best possible/automatic failover.
For DFS replicating DATA, it is a little more complicating, as it is preferable that all users access always the same server, the 2nd one should be ReadOnly by default (and writable only if necessary).