Most back up software have a disaster recover built in. In that you can build recovery CD from tapes (OS Speaking). There are variation on this theme
For example. backup exec has this feature however it requires that you RECREATE the cd after every change to a server. It cannot be built from a tape, Thus you must keep an up to date recovery CD. this is the fastest recover method although if your CD are not up to date your back to square one. The typical trade off between efficiency and manageability. The Cd should be boot able. Retrospect software. Allows you to do this from tape eliminating the need to have up-to-date recovery CD's. I'm still demoing this software. It has lived up to it's claims although if your not familiar with its process. it is convoluted and very order dependent. one misstep and square one. Coolness about this is you can Boot from tape. well first the CD but it attaches easily to the tape drives for expedited recovery times. As anyone who has done disaster recovery implementation knows. There is truly no one solution to this issue. once you step from the realm of indifferent hardware. The beast changes shape. Windows is typically forgiving when it encounters dissimilar hardware in that if it has access to the I386 Director all should turn out fine. this hold water as long as the Processors are within the same family. try doing this from a ZEON to a Itanium or pentium and you blue screen at start up and have had little luck running the recovery. I believe this is tied to the NTLDR file. When considering a palatable DR strategy. Its not just " is the data safe and recoverable". But in what time frame can this be completed. If it takes a week to get back up. Thats a disaster. Giving a typical turn around time of 24 hours can this accomplished using above methods. To a degree' based on size of company total data load and blah blah blah. What im getting to is this. it may be easier cheaper faster. to replicate data real time. Identify critical systems replicate hardware. and do real time replication across say dedicate T1 to your offsite DR. up to the minuet and available immediately. Windows handled this through DCOM however i have heard that was replaced by clustering service new to 2003. Very expensive i have a payroll system. which handle several tens of thousand checks to people every week. I replicate all changed data in real time. If we were to lose our Internet connection. the software through the Dedicated T1 drops the change queue to the Off site system then once that is complete initiates the RAS services. The client has a heart beat built in in that if after 7 minuets it cannot reach the primary RAS server. It then queries the secondary address. this is completely transparent to the user with the exception that everything "PAUSED" for the allocated time. once back up the reverse happens in that it coordinates the transition per client as the new queue request are handled from the DR server and migrated back to the Primary system. Complete invisible to user as long as an outage does not occur again. Sorry so long winded. DR was a serious and still is to a degree a thorn in an IT person side. Just remember the ROSE it is attached to. If ever you need it. Nothing like looking exceptional to the CEO CFO and all the other people ho have that alphabet in their names. I hoped this helped I realize it doesn't address the step by step request. the only way you'll get that is to develope and repeat the process till it work 4 out of 5 times. then you can sleep with only one eye open Glen Miller Payflex System USA, Inc. Desktop management Evolution Administration 402 231 8666 402 231 4357 402 650 2949 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: "Carerros, Charles" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'[email protected]'" <[email protected]> Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 07:45:33 -0600 Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Continuity planning and AD > My organization just moved to a W2K3 AD and we have one of our offsite > DR > tests coming up. I was wondering if someone wouldn't mind sharing any > step > by step documentation that you have generated to perform this restore > (basically so I don't have to go and draft one from scratch)? > > If not, is there any other interesting tid-bits that we need to know. > (I > will probably end up restoring two Domain Controllers, one for the > Forest > and one for my domain during this test plan) so any and all help will > be > nice. > > Thanks. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Hunter, Laura E. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 6:23 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Continuity planning and AD > > > I run into this a lot; we go to Sungard twice a year to do DR testing > and we never -ever- get identical hardware. It becomes a voodoo dance > of > running a repair, occasionally doing an in-place upgrade, and getting > rid of now-extinct metadata and replication entries with ntdsutil and > repadmin. > > FWIW, it works better on 2003 than 2000, since sometimes the TCP/IP > stack gets hosed and it's easier to delete/recreate in 2003 than 2000 - > it's a 3-step KB article instead of a 3 -page- one. > > Laura > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 5:37 AM > > To: [email protected] > > Cc: [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: Re: [ActiveDir] Continuity planning and AD > > > > Hi Johnny > > > > In theory, you should be able to do your restore to the > > different hardware, and then boot to the CD, choose setup, > > and choose repair existing version of Windows to redetect all > > hardware. I am not sure this is supported but we were able > > to do it in our forest recovery test with no real problems > > besides time time time and more time. > > > > Make sure you test the solution well before deciding that an > > identical box is not the answer. > > > > Regards; > > > > James R. Day > > Active Directory Core Team > > Office of the Chief Information Officer > > National Park Service > > (202) 354-1464 (direct) > > (202) 371-1549 (fax) > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > > > > > > > "jonny" > > > > > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: > > <[email protected]> > > > > Sent by: cc: > > (bcc: James Day/Contractor/NPS) > > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: > > [ActiveDir] Continuity planning and AD > > > > tivedir.org > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > 03/18/2005 10:03 AM GMT > > > > > > Please respond to > > > > > > ActiveDir > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Dear All > > > > I am a bit of AD newbie so I am not even sure if this is an > > AD issue; so apologies in advance. > > > > Anyway, we have a disaster recovery server which we plan to > > store off site. > > This will be switched off while in storage. Our live server > > is a Windows 2000 server running AD. The backup software is > > Veritas Backup Exec. We do not use one button recovery. > > > > The plan is this at the moment: when our server cathes fire, > > is flooded or stolen, we take a recent tape from off site > > with all our data and another tape with our 'system' and > > restore. Well that was easy!! > > > > Well aside from many likely problems this I the one I want to > > ask about > > here: > > > > The system tape is derived from a Veritas backup called > > System backup. I believe this backs up all the registry > > settings and I assume the user databse, the DNS, DHCP setting > > and other services settings also. The recovery server is not > > a hardware duplicate of the live server, but it does run > > Windows 2000 server and Veritas. > > > > Question: I have been told a systemn restore will result in > > the recovery server crashing as it is not a hardware > > duplicate. How do I backup (and > > restore) all the software and operating system settings and > > the AD settings without requiring a hardware duplicate? Can > > anyone point to resources that state how to do this and what > > to be aware of? > > > > Many thanks for any help on this > > > > Jonny > > > > > > _________________________ > > Jonathan Feldman > > ICT Manager > > NACVS > > 177 Arundel Street > > Sheffield, S1 2NU > > > > Tel: 0114 278 6636 > > Fax: 0114 278 7004 > > Textphone: 0114 278 7025 > > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Web: http://www.nacvs.org.uk > > ______________________________ > > > > Registered charity no. 1001635 > > Registered company no. 2575306 > > Registered office as above > > ------------------------------- > > > > Dates for your diary > > =================== > > > > Chief Officers' Residential Event 2005 > > Royal Court Hotel, Coventry > > 6-7 April > > > > http://www.nacvs.org.uk/nacvs/events/core/index.shtm > > > > If you take my advice...getting HR support right Age Concern, > > Birmingham 21st March > > > > http://www.nacvs.org.uk/nacvs/events/hr/index.shtm > > > > Local Public Service Agreements: engaging communities Novotel > > Birmingham Centre > > 19 May 2005 > > http://www.nacvs.org.uk/nacvs/events/lpsa > > > > > > List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx > > List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx > > List archive: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ > > > > > > List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx > > List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx > > List archive: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ > > > List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx > List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx > List archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ > List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx > List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx > List archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
