Backup server

[welsh blackbird]

How do I go about running two servers side by side so that if server 1 falls over, server 2 kicks in automatically?

I have 2 Dell PowerEdge servers. The one in use at the moment is running Windows 2000 Server. The other is not used at present but has NT4. I presume that I will need to install 2000 Server on this machine.

How will server 2 know that server 1 has keeled over?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

[bigandclever]

You'll be wanting Windows 2000 *Advanced* Server for its clustering / failover technology (or NT Server Enterprise Edition on both machines).

Or move both machines to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition or Datacentre Edition for Cluster Service (MSCS)

[cuneus]

Depends on the application

for file sharing, web serving you don't need clustering

[Mark.S]

You will need clustering if you want automatic failover between the machines.

[agent006]

Mark.S said:

You will need clustering if you want automatic failover between the machines.

If it's being used as an internal file sharing type machine. Separate loadbalancing box would be better for web servers.

[JamieBeeston]

If you've got the money to spend, then a Hardware Load Balanced Solution would be best.

We tend to use Alteon (Nortel) kit, and it works a charm. Obviosuly features are cost dependant, but they can be set to run Active-Active, or Active-Passive (2 servers online at once, both serving, sharing the workload between the two servers, or 1 Server live, running 100% of the work, 1 server on backup, waiting to kick in should one fail.)

Its certainly the path to a 'proper' solution, but its not cheap.

J

[cuneus]

Mark.S said:

You will need clustering if you want automatic failover between the machines.

Not for the applications I mentioned

[dans]

Depending on what you are trying to achieve and where - i.e. is it an internal solution or one which will be public/customer facing and is the failover actually mission critical or would you have time to change servers manually if you spotted a fail - some sort of load balancing is required, but as Jamie said it ain't cheap if you go for hardware based and even if you are running a software LB like Zeus there is a significant cost. you could also try a less automated solution and implement a good monitoring system on the live server and then manually switch in the event of a problem. I'll happily have a chat with you about the options and implications - drop me an email through my profile if you want to know more.

Cheers
Dan