We have our two production servers in a cluster sharing the same disk array. The disks are in a 3-way mirror so if we experience a hard drive failure, the system should remain up. Either system in the cluster can access the disk array - but of course, only one system can control it at a time.
Each system in the cluster has its own OS and we copy certain data from the active server to the passive server each night - data such as logins, passwords, certain files under /etc, and because we have Universe certain files under our UV home directory. The nightly copy process keeps all the OS related data in sync. Remember, all our database files are on the disk array which is always available to both systems - so no nightly or hourly backing up of that data is needed. Every first of the month we switch between the systems. This does two things for us. First, it makes sure the passive system is still working and is ready to go in case of a failure. Second, it makes sure we're copying all the necessary OS level files as needed - which we discovered after a few times that we forgot a few UNIX level files. For networking purposes we had to create new IP address that always point to whichever system is active in the cluster. Then we had to push that IP out to all our users. So there was some setup pain, but once everyone and every device was pointing to the new IP address, we haven't had any problems. There were some pretty big costs also - we had to purchase additional Universe licenses for the "backup" system - we got them at a reduced cost, but still, it seems silly to have to pay for licenses that will always be offline. We also had the same issue with every other software license we have on the active server - but I believe we were able to get them all at a cheaper rate. Barry Rutherford Programmer / Analyst MobilexUSA 920 Ridgebrook Rd, Sparks, MD 21152 Direct: 443-662-4162 Toll Free: 800-786-8015 ext. 4162 Fax: 443-662-4225 http://www.mobilexusa.com -----Original Message----- From: owner-u2-us...@listserver.u2ug.org [mailto:owner-u2-us...@listserver.u2ug.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Powell Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 3:07 PM To: u2-users@listserver.u2ug.org Subject: [U2] Does anybody have a hot backup server? I am trying to put together a backup strategy that involves keeping a standby server within two data hours of the primary. The idea is to be able to have users log into the backup server and keep the business running in the event of a crash. I'd like to hear what solutions others have found for this. I've been trying to contact IBM for the last 6 months but they haven't answered and my ERP vendor doesn't know how to do this. Any ideas are appreciated. TIA ------- u2-users mailing list u2-users@listserver.u2ug.org To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/ ------- u2-users mailing list u2-users@listserver.u2ug.org To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
