Server 2008 R2 and cloning.

[Batmeat]

I've got two servers right by each other physically. Does 2008R2 have the capability to clone the main server to the backup server? In theory if the main one dies, all I want to do is switch on the backup. I know I can just add hard drives to the main server and then swap them, but I don't want to have to take machines apart. Network speed is gigabit.

 

[Batmeat]

Mods, just realized I posted this in the wrong forum...Please move to the O/S forum and forgive error.

 

[Zxian]

Not to my knowledge, but you shouldn't be doing this anyways. Have both servers up and running, and use the backup server as a backup server. It will take over most roles if the master goes down. If you simply make a snapshot now, you risk losing configuration changes over time, and you can seriously gum up any AD settings you might have.

 

[yinan]

This is where virtualization comes into play. If they were both ESXi hosts connected to shared storage with Server 2008 R2 guests if one host failed the guest OS would automatically restart on the 2nd host.

 

[rsutoratosu]

virtualization wont help if you have shared storage, if the server dies due to disk issues, your shared storage wont do jack, you basically need a full redundant nas to nas or san to san replication.. for vm

there are also technology like shadow protect that will do bare metal restore so if you snapshot the whole server to a storage box, you can restore it, with tools like shadow protect, you can schedule hourly snapshot, so the most you'll lose is 1 hour of work..

what I done for a few clients with no money but 2 server, setup both server as AD on both box, enable dfs replication for both and use dfs shares..

or enable AD on both box, write a script hourly like using robocopy and copy the shares from svr1 to svr2. Share both data drives ie

j - svr1 data share
k - svr2 data share

so you tell people if J fails, go to k, but theres always some people that decides to go to k and get overwritten by J.

This works for small offices where you dont have tons of people to remind and on small budget

 

[6string]

Are you needing to backup AD or the whole server? You can use the windows built in backup tool to make a backup of Active Directory. If you server crashes you can reload the OS and restore AD and be back up and running.

You can also have two domain controllers and if one crashes you are still ok as long as you move all the FSMO roles to the DC that is still running.

 

[Batmeat]

Are you needing to backup AD or the whole server? You can use the windows built in backup tool to make a backup of Active Directory. If you server crashes you can reload the OS and restore AD and be back up and running.

You can also have two domain controllers and if one crashes you are still ok as long as you move all the FSMO roles to the DC that is still running.

I need to backup the whole server, not just AD. It's for a small office, only 8 clients connect to the server. The main server handles everything. The old server just needs to be a duplicate of the main.

EDIT...Just looked at shadow protect.....no way are they going to want to spend $1k on on software. I"ll have to experiment with

setup both server as AD on both box, enable dfs replication for both and use dfs shares..