Fault-tolerant Windows 2000 system???

[netadmin06]

Hello I have a domain where the Domain Controller is a Windows 2003 Server. I also have a member server that is running Windows 2000 server.

The Win2k Server has a very important share that MUST be up 100% of the time. My questions is: what would be the best way to make that share fault tolerant....is there a way to have a "mirror identical server" that would kick on when the main server goes down??...( the share has files that are constantly changing so replication would have to occur )....I do have another server with plenty of free space, perhaps I could use DFS??? or should i buy another server all together??...what solutions are available for this situation besides DFS??....I am not sure if DFS would work because this share is huge...(20GB on size) or does this matter??..any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Davetoo]

DFS would work just fine for this. You'd be far better off getting two 2003R2 servers and utilizing it's DFS as it's far superior to W2K's version. If it's that critical, then obtaining the hardware shouldn't be an issue.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[netadmin06]

Dave too can you please tell me how DFS in Win2k3 server is better than the one in Wind2k??.....is the 20GB share size an issue??....as I said this share has files that are constantly being modified. Thanks Davetoo

 

[Davetoo]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/storage/dfs/default.mspx

Share size isn't an issue beyond initial synchronization.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[netadmin06]

Thanks davetoo how long do u think a initial synchronization will take for 20 GB of data on a local area network??

 

[Davetoo]

No idea really, but to be safe I'd fire the DFS up on Friday evening so it had the weekend to complete. Really though, you're probably looking at hours, not days.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[netadmin06]

Thanks!