Dual Server Configuration Options

fRAiLtY-

fRAiLtY-

fRAiLtY-

Associate
Joined
5 Apr 2012
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4
Hi all,

My company has a HP Proliant ML150 tower server thats going to be a secondary domain controller on a new network/domain. We intend on purchasing a new box to be the primary domain controller. In our day to day business applications we use SQL Server, Active Directory, DHCP and DNS.

Once this new server is in and set we will be rebuilding the Proliant to act as a backup. However what we'd like to do is have them mirrored so in the event of a system critical failure on the new box, the Proliant could take over in the quickest timeframe and keep the business running whilst the new box is repaired.

What would be the best hardware or software configuration to allow this and what are things to be aware of when doing so? My MD suggested one RAID array to service both machines, but I see this as a single point of failure and not a clever idea.

Any suggestions would be great! Both boxes will be running Windows Server 2008 Standard with 25 user CALS.

Cheers.
 
Hi showboat,

Thanks for the quick reply. We only actually use the free version of SQL Server (Express) as that's all our MIS requires. Also, yes, AD and SQL are on the same box.

My thoughts were replication of the databases onto the 2nd domain controller so in the event of the 1st DC going down we could re-link the client machines to the 2nd DC and away we go. We don't mind a bit of manual intervention (unless there is a hands-off option) we just want to plan ahead just incase.

On the server configuration front, you'd have separate RAID arrays in each DC correct? So effectively they're completely separate entities just both DC's on the same domain.

Cheers
 
No that's already what I planned to do.

Have server replication on so A and B have the same data, then if server A goes down, point the clients to server B. I just wondered whether there was an automated solution to this?

Cheers.
 
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