> Hi Everyone,
>
> We are a relatively small company (400+) users with limited budget, and
> space. We are very interested in using Virtual Server as a solution for
> our
> DR plan.
>
> Our network currently consists of the following:
>
> 2003 Active Directory (2 Domain Controllers)
> 1 2003 Exchange
> 1 2005 SQL 2005
> 1 File & Print Server
> 1 IIS Server
>
> We have a very robust network (all branches connected via 100MB Fibre) so
> we
> have some good bandwidth. We also have an office that will become our DR
> site, removed from the main office.
>
> My thought was to use Virtual Server in 2 ways:
>
> 1)A testing\development domain. We would take snap shots of existing
> servers, isolate them from the rest of the network, and run any upgrades,
> patches, etc from this location.
>>>>>This is an ideal use of Virtual Server. You may also want to look at
>>>>>http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/scvmm/default.mspx to help with
>>>>>managent of this setup (note: it's in beta at present).
> 2)Disaster Recovery. Still not 100% sure how this part would work, but
> this
> is more of our need. Basically, we would need to have very quick turn
> around
> on Exchange (prime for our type of business) and then SQL.
>
> We had thought of taking snap shots of the Domain Controllers, and
> Exchange...however, while I know this will work...I also know that you
> can't
> have the domain controllers offline for too long of a period. At some
> point,
> they need to have a connection to the existing physical domain controllers
> so
> they can replicate, update, etc. That would be issue 1.
>>>>> As you will have a 2nd box (server) at the other site, make that a AD
>>>>> server and let it replicate, and therefore be a backup to the prime
>>>>> site, you could also run Virtual Server on that host (if your workload
>>>>> allows).
> For Exchange, we had 2 thoughts. One is to simply have a blank Exchange
> setup ready to go, and then run a recovery if we ever lose the existing
> physical box. We are backing up the System State, the databases, and have
> copies of the mailboxes.
>
> Other idea is to move the information store on the physical exchange box,
> to
> a cluster or a SAN. If correct, we should be able to take a snap shot of
> the
> physical exchange box, load on VS, point it toward the cluster\SAN as well
> (and then shut it down). As long as we don't lose the cluster\SAN, it
> should
> be a simple matter of turning on the virtual exchange, until we can get
> the
> physical box up and running.
>
> At any rate, before this post turns into "War & Peace" I would like to get
> feedback from people who have used this product as part of their DR plan.
> We
> might be looking at it too complicated, or perhaps to simple, so any help
> would be great.