Please review my recovery plan

[jschweg]

Hi guys. I just need an opinion as to weather or not my diaster recovery plan is sound. We are a small organization and I don't really have the luxury of a test environment.

The situation is simple:

Server1 = Domain Controller & Exchange Server
Server2 = Domain Controller

The recovery plan would outline what to do if Server1 was a total loss.

1) Remove Server1 from Active Directory manually since I can't use dcpromo

2) Replace Server1, format, re-install Windows 2000

3) Join Server1 back to the domain (as the same name), which will replicate all the AD information back from Server2

4) Install Exchange 2000 + patches with disaster recovery switch

5) Restore Exchange Databases from tape and mount them

Will this work?

My concern is weather or not I will have SID problems considering the server will have a brand new SID when I join the server back to the network.. Will Exchange have problems?

 

[MapMan]

Hi jschweg,

Please check out

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=6E55DD49-8A6C-4F30-947E-BDE95917F585

This is a PDF from Microsoft that details various scenarios for disaster recovery. Some of the information states that you should not do your step #3 until MSExchange is installed in disaster recovery mode.



MapMan

Assume nothing, question everything, be explicit not implicit, and you'll always be covered.

 

[jschweg]

Okay, heres the problem. I understand that I need to make a Windows Backup Set to restore before running Exchange 2000 in disaster recovery mode however the article says that the Backup Set is comprised of three parts:

1) System State
2) The Boot Partition
3) The System Partition

System State is no problem, but the system/boot partition is the c:\ drive, along with Exchange and everything else. I don't really have tape space to back all of that information up. Is the system state all you really need, or do you HAVE to have the boot and system partition?

 

[MapMan]

Hi jschweg,

I just finished building a server that all I had from the original server was an NTBACKUP of the exchsrvr directory. So, I didn't have the "system state" or "boot partition" to fall back on.

When you run Exchange in recovery mode, it doesn't mount the stores. This gives you a chance to do a restore using full and transaction log backups. At this point I just copied the backup files into the store directories. Then I mounted the stores and all was good.

As for the backups mentioned in the article, keep in mind that when you backup the system state, that means all domain controllers. If you don't have the system state of all the domain controllers available, you may have problems with restoring the complete domain. I backup the system state of our domain controllers onto another box. Then I copy all those files onto tape.

When re-installing the Exchange software, apply only the service packs that were on the system at the time of failure. After the recovery is complete you can install any subsequent patches.

I just about croaked when I came in the morning our Exchange server went down. But, thanks to Active Directory and Recovery mode, it was pretty painless to bring the server back up. I didn't have recent backups and we lost our recent messages, but I was able to salvage the bulk of the data.

Now, I know I need an online backup done periodically and transaction log backups done frequently. This means I will/should be able to restore all/most of the store(s).

Hope this helps and doesn't confuse.

MapMan

Assume nothing, question everything, be explicit not implicit, and you'll always be covered.

 

[jschweg]

Thats good to know. Being that you didn't have a system state, what was your process for bringing the machine back into the domain?

 

[bigpapapump]

Help with a recovery plan appreciated.

I have 3 servers on my network.
PDC01 runs AD and Exchange.
SQL01 runs a customized sql program for our sales floor.
COM01 is a Citrix server.

My main concern is disaster recovery on the PDC01. We currently backup all servers and data, including Exchange, with Backup Exec.
If PDC01 developes a hardware problem and has to be taken offline what would be the best way to have one of the other servers take it's place?

 

[bigpapapump]

They are all Dell PowerEdge 2650's running Win2k sp4 Server.

 

[MapMan]

Thats good to know. Being that you didn't have a system state, what was your process for bringing the machine back into the domain?

Well...

The replacement server was new hardware; we lost the drive on the old one and decided to upgrade since we were down anyways. So, I setup the server with the old name. (I found out later that wasn't supposed to be done) After installing all the W2k service packs I:

[ol]
[li]Promoted the server to a domain controller[/li]
[li]Installed E2k and all necessary service packs in recovery mode[/li]
[li]Restored/pasted the backup edb and stm files[/li]
[li]Mounted the stores saying a little prayer[/li]
[/ol]

I did have some problems with the MSExchangeFBPublish service but was able to resolve those with registry edits. I believe those problems were because I initially named the server with the same name as the old one.




MapMan

Assume nothing, question everything, be explicit not implicit, and you'll always be covered.