SCSI as backup

[SCSI drive as backup]

Hi guys

I have an idea but am not sure of the Pro's and Con's

I have a 72GB mirror on my MS exhange 2000 and AD server.
I want to purchase another 73 gb, swop once a month with a mirror. If the Windows install were to go corrupt or if the mirror fail, then I have a backup.


Will the work? any ideas?

Collin

[Rafal Koszyk]

I have not tried this but this looks really good. I do this often but with clean drives when they fail. Take out the bad one - put in a new one and then it replicates.

Assuming you have a time window to do this each month and then can do the replication in the off hours then this looks good.

Of course I don't know if moving hard drives around there and back is a good idea. Most of the problems with hard drives I had was when the server was moved or when hard drives were moved.

I would make na image after each major update and make daily backups of data to a different drive/location. Good luck.

But then monthly backups of exchange is not enough. Most of our clients would not be happy about losing emails from one day - let alone one month ( worst case scenario, the loss would be anywhere from 0-30 days )

[Colin_29]

Yes this works (I have done it on a file server) but hot swapping drives will decrease their life expectancy. If you are going to do it then unclip the drive but do not remove it from the cage untill it has spun down.

I am assuming that this is not a replacement for you standard backup as this would not be recommended.

[e4services · Accepted solution]

We currently do this. This is a situation no one seems to talk about, but it is what our failures have been, the OS (Windows) get fouled somehow (virus, MS, Bill Gates). My personal feeling is, 10 times more downtime is created from Windows corruptions than hard drive failure.

So we alway keep a Cold Swap individual from the OS Mirror. If things go south, you simply remove the existing mirror set and insert your Cold Swap backup unit. Re-start. Let it tell you a drive has failed. Add one of the old set and let it rebuild. Then you can rebuild the other when finished to replace the Cold Swap.

We suggest this to all customers now. A mirrored set with cold backup for the OS and a RAID 5 for the data. And if you REALLY want to speed things up, an IDE drive for all the Windows Virtual Memory and Temp files. Why bog the RAID controller down constantly trying to duplicate this garbage.

[Shameer.V.A]

Hi Collin,
This we are using for last 2 years for our critical mail server.
Our Setup is as follows,
We are having a Mail Server with a hardware RAID Controller. 2 *73 GB Disks are mirrored & 1 we kept for swapping. Quarterly we pull out one disk & put 3rd disk, & keep the disk in safe.
When we want to do any OS updates, patches, we stop all the network activity & pull one disk out & do the changes, & if server is working fine we will put the disk back.

This will be very useful , in case of a server crash - we only have to restore the post office for the days since the disk changed.

Regards

Shameer

[SCSI drive as backup]

Thank you guys, what what effect will this have on Windows 2000 AD?

[Shameer.V.A]

Hi Collin,
It should work with Windows 2000 ADS also. You only have to redo the changes you have made after the backup( User Creation, Policy Changes). Our Server is also a Windows 2000 Additional Domain Controller.

Shameer