Topic: Switching to SME with new servers

[jefash]

hi guys, I currently admin a small NT 4 server network, on the server we have a folder that holds our inventory program, then the workstaions just access the share to run the prog, I am getting 2 of these dell servers  
http://tinyurl.com/qxvtr

This is what i would like to do

install SME 7 on 1 server running 2 hard drives in raid 1 acting as a PDC and housing the shared files, how can i have the 2nd machine as a total backup machine if the 1st one fails, and how would i set it up?

also, is the hardware in the server gonna be compatible, and will the GB nic work at full speed?

any help is very much appreciated, i am kinda new to linux, and very new to SME, i have searched the forum and googled, so please dont flame me with the search topic

[smeusr]

If you're just using a vanilla install of SME, that would be very easy.  The SME flexbackup is configure to do full backups and will restore all server configuration and user data onto a newly installed server.  It backups everything down to user passwords and storage quotas.  Get two tape drives, one for each server.  I'm assuming that the primary production box is totally unrecoverable.  Have the backup preloaded with SME 7 software on the backup box.  When time comes, restore the latest backup.

Done.

Really, it's that easy.

[jefash]

i guess i may just be confused as to how simple it is, that just seems waaay to good to be true

is there a way to do it without tape drives, like with an external hard drive?  i really want to get away from tape

[smeusr]

I haven't tried this myself.  But here goes...

You can take advantage of your RAID 1 mirror drives by ...
- Purchase 3 identical drives.  
- Use 2 drives for the RAID mirror.  
- Periodically, take down your server and unplug the second drive.  
- Bring it back online.   The server will recognize that the RAID is not present.  You can confirm this by the 'Manage Disk Redundancy' option on the server admin console.
- Take the server down again.  
- Replace the unplugged drive with your third drive and reconnect cables.
- Boot the machine.  
- Go back into the text server admin console.  
- Select the Manage Disk Redundancy option and answer 'Yes' to rebuild mirror.

Once rebuilt, you now have a full mirrored set and a spare.  

Like I said.  I don't do this myself for disaster recovery but I know of people who do.

[nmtrier]

i would like to ... install SME 7 on 1 server running 2 hard drives in raid 1 acting as a PDC and housing the shared files, how can i have the 2nd machine as a total backup machine if the 1st one fails, and how would i set it up?

I recently installed SME 7 on a Dell PE SC430 for a client.  The only problem I found was with the Travan tape drive, for which support is now provided via an optional kernel module (see: http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=788 & http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1767)

This client has only a couple of users and 9GB of space used, and the Travan has worked well for 3 years.  I was able to do restore the previous night's flexbackup onto the new server in less than an hour, and have the new server operational by 9am.  I then had to setup the old server as "server only" with a new name, and temporarily setup the email clients to be able to additionally access the old server, so I could manually copy any mail received after the time of the backup into the IMAP folder of the new server.
If you don't like the 3 disk solution proposed above, then there is a "backup to disk" contrib which would let you use an external disk. See the
"BACKUP & RESTORE" section of the Contribs page at http://no.longer.valid/phpwiki/index.php/SME7Contribs

also, is the hardware in the server gonna be compatible, and will the GB nic work at full speed?

On this config, I am still using a legacy 10Mb/s hub, so I cannot confirm GB speed, but on another system, the 100Mb/s worked out of the box, so I see no reason why it should not.

[Boris]

also, is the hardware in the server gonna be compatible, and will the GB nic work at full speed?

Yes and Yes.