Using the current technologies with VMWare, Windows, and Cisco, it is possible to have a live backup at an alternate location. The link below show a demo Viso layout of Windows 2003 Doman Controllers and SQL running a cutomers location and being repicated over a T1 to a hosting company. This aritcle will be update from time to time to get results of T1 usage and how VMWare performs.
http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/342
Full featured and secure web- and mail hosting appliance with ISPConfig management interface.
RAID (Which one is best)
RAID.pdf
Note:
RAID 0 is great for performance but if one drive fails all the data is lost.
Xcopy
Copies files and directories, including subdirectories.
Syntax
xcopy Source [Destination] [/w] [/p] [/c] [/v] [/q] [/f] [/l] [/g] [/d[:mm-dd-yyyy]] [/u] [/i] [/s [/e]] [/t] [/k] [/r] [/h] [{/a|/m}] [/n] [/o] [/x] [/exclude:file1[+[file2]][+[file3]] [{/y|/-y}] [/z]
Parameters
Source : Required. Specifies the location and names of the files you want to copy. This parameter must include either a drive or a path.
Destination : Specifies the destination of the files you want to copy. This parameter can include a drive letter and colon, a directory name, a file name, or a combination of these.
Overview:
ES 4 Server
Application used in process for moving:
Webmin (http://webmin.com) “A very useful program)
command line
Actions performed:
1) Performed a tar -zcf postfix.tar.gz of the postfix directory.
2)Performed a backup of user accounts using Webmin.
3)Performed a backup of home directory tar -zcf home.tar.gz
FC 4 Server
Application used in process for moving:
Webmin
command line
Action performed:
1)Installed postfix using YUM
2)Installed Webmin
3)Extracted the postfix.tar.gz (overwrite of the original installed directory.
4)Extracted the home.tar.gz
5)Using Webmin interface did a restore of the user accounts.
6)tested usernames and passwords and it worked.
Test Lab Results:
This lab was to test what AD would do under weird conditions and restores.
Note:
Please comment if you find anything. This was just a test lab. All Servers were in VM Workstation 5.5.
The safest way to restore Active Directory is to make sure your Domain Controllers only do Active Directory. Veritas and other programs have cause DCs not to boot. Remote restores from Veritas 9 would also overwrite the system state of a DC. I informed Veritas of this bug in 2004. Veritas has a patch now for this bug.
Overview
Duration of change over: 1 week
Server: Dell 2400 (Server is over 6 years OLD)
Server Name: SES01
Server: Dell 1420SC (Moving to this server under VMWare)
Server Name: EX1
Disk Server Dell 2400 SCSI 36 gigs 3 in Raid 5 Hardware
2 in Volume Raid 5 Mirror to the Volume Drive 68.9 gigs (Software)
Dynmanic Disks are required for Software Raid
(Yes I am really into backups)
Steps:
used NTBackup of C drive and M drive no service Stopped
used NTBackup of C drive and M Drive Exchange Service Stopped
Mirror Raid 5 over to Volume Drive
Tested both to make sure they would boot.
While mirroring drives:
Created Server on Server 2000 in VMWare
installed updates
Cloned Image for Exchange Server
I also shutdown my VMWare Domain Controller and did a copy to make sure it would boot off the network.
Reason for all the Backups
If anything when wrong I could always go back to the time I started.
Reference:
Q307917
DCPROMO
Removed Server SES01 (Server 2000 Small Business) from being a Domain Controller
I also made sure Exchange 2000 worked.
Exchange 2003 install:
Installed Exchange 2003 custom.
After install I followed the steps in Q307917.
Then, I moved 10 mailboxes to the new server.
After one work day:
I shutdown server and copied image for a backup. I then installed SP2 on the Exchange server.
Shutdown SES01 and did not turn on for 3 days.
No issue with users and mailboxes.
shutdown all servers and copied images of all VMs to a safe location.
Rebooted all server including SES01
Images gigs total = 89 Gigs (with the SATA Drives this took about 30 mins)
Uninstalled Exchange 2000 (I had to remove it from EX1 I could not run the install on SBS 2000) The uninstall would not work. SBS must be the only server in for the uninstall to work (guessing)
I did test on the EX1 server after I removed the server from Systems Manager. I could send and recieive emails from many domains.
Users:
All users mailboxes moved to new server. I logged in as each user and Exchange did move the users to the new mail server EX1.
I put spam connecitons filters on.
Scenario: Click to see Drawing PictureNotes are in the following order:
Rough = my notes taken during testing
Test0X = my notes cleaned up
Index to TestLabs