AD and backup restore to different harware?

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AD and backup restore to different hardware? .. oops typo

I just wonder if anyone could give any advice or suggest solutions for how to backup data keeping the option open to restore to different hardware?“ shares, user, groups, ous, gpos, files, permissions etc especially server 2003

 

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Is this for a DR solution?

 

Yes its small very small single server network for a charity based project that totally relies on donated secondhand hardware. I know how i would like to do things however i wonted to see what other people thought especially due to budget restrictions.

 

If I were you I would run a vm and have a second DC in that, that way the hardware would stay the same and you could backup\restore as you liked.

One point I would make, ensure you move all the FSMO roles onto the VM otherwise you would have issues trying to restore the VM because you wouldn't have the roles.

 

Charities! PITA to support

Why not look at creating a second DC on a VM? You could run it on a spare workstation if you have one knocking about - just chuck VMWare Server on there and you're good to go. Obviously it needs to be a reasonable spec workstation - running it on an old P2 with 256Mb of RAM isn't going to cut it - but if they've got relatively modern desktops and one is 'spare', I'd go down this route.

You could also back it up regularly to give you some semblance of off-site recoverability

 

LOL

erm... What Simon says

 

Thanks that's pretty much what i wanted to do (as you can see from my other threads), have ESXi on a second machine then DFS-R the shares to have a live backup of the data. Then Image and backup the data on the VM on regular intervals, maybe keeping a image of the old server for quick restore.

 

Tell me about it!!!

They're sweating when i mentioned getting a HP ML115 G5 , like the ESXi boxes i am used to working with.... there pea nuts.

As you can read from my other threads ESXi is the route i suggested originally. I guess they will just have to bite the bullet!

 

I was actually thinking of adding more memory to a P4 and running Vmware server via Linux

 

That's similar to the setup of a business I support.

2 ML 110 running Ubuntu Server/VMware server with 1 DC on each ML. As far as backups are concerned, I got A VM with Backup Exec doing daily system backups for the PDC/Schema holder (a bit of an overkill I know ).The backup file is then uploaded via a script to a NAS device.

The linux Machines including the VM's are compressed and ftp'ed to the NAS device via Scripts/Cronjob.

Not elegant I know but works and you do have a relatively solid DR/Backup strategy.

Hope this helps.

 

Interesting ...

What spec ML110 do you use?
what sort of network size?

I suppose beefing up a workstation could be a possibility if push came to shove

 

6 Gigs RAM/2 Core per ML. Coping fine/Reporting 0.5 load average.
Very small network, 16 people including MD.

How about yours?

 

Currently 40 users soon to be 50

I believe the old server is a P4 with 2Gb. I would say only about 10-15 people actually use it for storage.
Most users use mandatory profiles.

you using raid for performance?

 

No disk redundancy as I have just taken over the position a month ago,I am still trying to workout an overall design but planning on adding some disks for a raid setup (probably once I upgradre to ESXI).

For a production server, a maximum of 2 virtual machines is what I would recommend on a Petium 4 with 2 gigs.

Hope this helps.