An thoughts on my solution

[JoyriderUK]

A long one, but I think it'll get ya'll thinking...


I'm installing an network for my company. They need to have two DR sites in both countries. The DR sites will have servers which will be replicated to the other site.

The DR sites will have 2MB direct leased lines to the main office in their country.

The offices have a 2MB leased link between them

The DR sites need to be able to talk to the Internet for remote access for those who might be working from home during a DR situation. A pair of PIXes will be in each DR site/office to allow for VPN/Client VPN.

We currently do not have a fixed 'bums on seats' site for those who will be working through a DR situation. I need a situation which is quite flexible yet redundant. So, I've added provision that at each DR site a Primary ISDN link will be installed, allowing aggregate ISDN connection to a temporary rented office anywhere should we need to relocate.


Can anyone tell me if they think there is a better way of doing this? Secondly, is there a reasonable Router that will do FastEthernet, PRI ISDN and finally a 2MB serial leased line? (The Internet Routers are managed by our ISP sadly)

Enclosed is a drawing of how I'm proposing the solution to look like.

http://www.robander.dircon.co.uk/dr.jpg

Many thanks!

 

[Frenchie2069]

Have you thought about how you are going to achieve your Jersey and London replicas? Have you considered bridging the Primary and DR sites so that you can use advanced features such as Windows Clustering or Network Load Balancing Service (NLBS).

You may not need to use the PIX as a VPN concentrator. If you get a router with the IPSec (and firewall) feature set then you can use that as the endpoint for your VPN tunnels.

The 1700 series routers do not support ISDN Pri, but support everything else that you need. The 2600 would be best (most affordable) if you want to go with PRI.

I am just finishing off a DR project for a financial institution in Jersey myself.

HTH,
Michael.

 

[JoyriderUK]

The replicas will be done by Double-Take failover software. I'll think about the bridging aspect. Will 2MB be enough for clustering?

NLBS will be used for Terminal services into our DR sites.

Doubletake appears to be the most cost-efficient and seems to hit our needs on the head. I was thinking about the routers vs. PIX debate. We currently have PIX'es in our Jersey/London office; I was going to try to pretty much try to keep it consistent with a bit of flexibility. But I'll keep that one in mind as a potiential saving. However a pair of 515E's are about £6K these days... not very expensive.

The 2621's for the routers sound like a safe bet.... and lowest cost too. So thanks for the tip.

Best wishes