Server Mirror for NT 4 Server?

[tchinhe]

Does NT 4 has any built in server mirror capability? I only have a PDC and that is also my file server. I was hoping that I could built a backup domain controller that will full roll me over for any down time. I am thinking of a IDE raid setup with one of the refurb motherboard over at newegg(can be new as well). Throw in a couple of western digital and Athlon 1600+ and 256MB DDR for around $600-700. I will get the chieftec 1030 as well. I usually don't have more than 10 ppl working at the same time.

I PDC is Dell 2500SC with P3 1ghz, 256mb, 3x 18gb raid 5, no redundant PS, 20gb tape drive.

Please advice.

 

[Woodie]

Not really.

The Domain Controller stuff should be fine, just build a second NT4 box as a BDC. (must be selected at build time). That'll take care of all the user IDs/password stuff.

The files are the problem...you could set it up as a manual mirror, using a timed job to copy all the files from one server to the other, but there's always going to be a gap. Also, if there's a failure on the primary, all the users would have to repoint their mapped drives to the secondary server. Not the end of the world, but it isn't automatic.

I would suggest that you move half the sharepoints/data to the second server, to spread the load. That way, if either of the servers dies, only half the users are out of the water.
Build the scheduled jobs to copy the data from each server to the other, so you have "hot" backup.
Are you keeping a recent backup off-site??? If not, it's past time to do that.
If either server goes down, you only have to visit half the staff to get them working again. Lost data is reduced to files that have been modified since the last copying/backup job. You can probably live with the single tape drive, since you're just duplicating your data onto another machine.

Cons:
It takes a second server, and more DASD.
More work to set up.

Pros:
Much better redundancy.
Reduced workload at crunch-time
Reduced down-time from a user perspective.