Live Mirror of a Linux server?

[utoyo]

Have two identical ubuntu Linux servers with an OS drive and a RAID array. I'd like to have one of the servers act as an active live mirror of the other server so it has all the same logins, data, and operating system (w/ updates, etc). The only difference I can see would be the IP address so if one server fails the mirror can just have the IP address changed and be up and running.

Any ideas or suggestions? I'd prefer to do it with standard commands or scripts.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[bdintegrations]

Cron + Rsync. What is the purpose of the server?


Business and Data Integrations

http://www.bdintegrations.com/

A Northern Virginia IT Service and Consulting Company

 

[utoyo]

The main server is a file server. Are there any guides or example rsync how-to's you recommend?

Thanks.

 

[utoyo]

More specifically, how would I exclude rsyncing everything but the IP address (and maybe the host name)?

 

[Annihilannic]

Well, you could always start with the rsync docs.

Personally I would just ensure all configuration changes were made identically on both servers, and only use rsync for mirroring the application data.

Annihilannic.

 

[geirendre]

Maby this how-to on setting up a high-availability
NFS-server set can help you get started.

http://www.howtoforge.com/high_availability_nfs_drbd_heartbeat

 

[elgrandeperro]

why wouldn't you cluster it?

 

[bdintegrations]

You shouldn't need to rsync everything(OS files). You should just install everything identically then rsync the business data.
Examples:

http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/examples.html

Business and Data Integrations

http://www.bdintegrations.com/

A Northern Virginia IT Service and Consulting Company

 

[robbieguy2003]

I was about to suggest DRBD & Heartbeat but Geirendre has done that before me

Its smart stuff and I've used it in production.

DRBD acts like a RAID1 Mirror over the network (dedicated GigE NIC on each machine with x-over would be a good config).

Heartbeat fails the services (i.e. Samba/NFS etc) over if your main server hits the dust. You are likely to still need to syncronise config files - its a good idea to do this anyway.

Before using DRBD in production though, I would suggest you learn it first - not difficult but I would spend a few days doing failover tests and getting used to how it works/resyncronises before deploying it in production.

I wish someone would just call me Sir, without adding 'Your making a scene'.

Rob