Server Redundancy (More Specific title added)

Oracle · 21 Jun 2006 at 10:45

Ok, heres the thing.

We have a massive server dealing with Lotus Notes, lets call it server01.

6000 people send and receive mail through this server and all their address books look at server01.

Server01 went down this morning, so 6000 people cant send mail

Is there not a way to mirror raid or cluster something together so that if server01 goes down, a real time copy of server01s mail book is accessible by other means but still called server01?

Thanks

pdw8 · 21 Jun 2006 at 10:51

Well I am amazed that an organisation with 6000 email users does not have a backup email server. Thats basic IT stuff and has critical business impact without it. My firm only has 2000 staff but has about 6 fully redundant email servers around the world that can be used by all with a very simple rollover proceedure.

Oracle · 21 Jun 2006 at 10:58

We do, but rather than rolling over to a backup db we'd rather have one running in sync

growse · 21 Jun 2006 at 13:11

Exchange certainly can be clustered, don't know anything about Lotus though. Pdw8's right though. Ideally you'ld have either one or two pairs of mail servers for each region if you're worldwide. Maybe just two pairs if you're only local. That way you're covered for component- and site-failure.

Burbleflop · 21 Jun 2006 at 13:26

Cluster together a couple of Domino servers. Job done.

It has been a few years since I've done it (and that was on v5) but from what I'm told it is even easier if you're using > v6 servers.

Have a look in the Domino Directory under configuration, clusters.

Oracle · 21 Jun 2006 at 15:36

Burbleflop said:
Cluster together a couple of Domino servers. Job done.

It has been a few years since I've done it (and that was on v5) but from what I'm told it is even easier if you're using > v6 servers.

Have a look in the Domino Directory under configuration, clusters.

Sorry, new to this, what and how to do i get to the domino Directory...I've had a little google, but nothing concrete has come up!!

Burbleflop · 21 Jun 2006 at 16:51

No disrespect, but if you're new enough that you don't know how to open the Domino Directory (aka the main addressbook) then you need to leave clustering to someone else.

That said, Open your Notes client, go to the database menu, then choose open. Change the server from local to server01 (or whatever) press enter than look in the list that appears. If you don't see it, type 'names.nsf' into the dialog box a the bottom.

Oracle · 21 Jun 2006 at 17:53

Burbleflop said:
No disrespect, but if you're new enough that you don't know how to open the Domino Directory (aka the main addressbook) then you need to leave clustering to someone else.

That said, Open your Notes client, go to the database menu, then choose open. Change the server from local to server01 (or whatever) press enter than look in the list that appears. If you don't see it, type 'names.nsf' into the dialog box a the bottom.

Sorry, I did know that....are cluster configuration settings within there? Dont they relate purely to server01?

Burbleflop · 21 Jun 2006 at 17:59

The Domino Directory is common to all Domino servers in a domain. When you add servers to an existing domain it'll replicate the directory to the new server - you'll need to setup a replication schedule though so that they'll replicate automatically.