I would look at doing this at the storage level. Vmware server (free) an iscsi product (free or low end) and do wan snapshots. Depending on bandwidth you have some other options. Doubletake has WanSync I think it's called that works okay, but again depends on bandwidth.
I would move them into a hosting facility where you gain all the bells and whistles with almost 0 downtime. You have too many possibilities for failure. One server, One bandwidth provider, one facility. If you are replicating at the data level then you aren't replicating the windows box just the data, so you still need a physical server ready to go in that scenario. If your need defines you only require data to be accessible, that's a huge difference over needing the data to be accessible. If you move into a hosting facility you may find that replicating down to the local office is better because down bandwidth is faster than up bandwidth (assuming 'small business' = dsl or similar). You drop the hosted app into the co-lo, roll into an iscsi snapshot type appliance and replicate down to the local office in case the colo goes down for any extended time. You could also go backups off the snapshots in the local office. -----Original Message----- From: Angus Scott-Fleming [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 5:57 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Standby server for small business? Got a small-business client (Server 2003,20 workstations, vertical- market database based on MS SQL Server) who just can't afford to be without their server for more than a few hours at most, so I'm looking into some sort of standby server. Anyone have any experience with this product? EMC RepliStor SMB Edition replication software enables small and medium businesses to protect a critical Windows file or application server by continuously replicating data to a second Windows server. Also, refresh my mind about licensing here, does MS require two licenses for Server 2003 when you do this? -- Angus Scott-Fleming http://www.geoapps.com/ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
