Risks of running on one server?

[kenclaimy]

I've recently inherited a network with around 35 client PCs and one server.

The server is a 3 year old Dell with Xeon processor, running Win 2000 Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server for ERP system)and file shares.

The server is backed up nightly, and there is a plan to invest in more hardware and spread the applications, however for the next few weeks this server is on it's own.

What are the risks here? and what can I do to reduce them short term

Thanks

 

[Davetoo]

If it's been running fine for the past 3 years, and you're backing it up nightly, and they plan on divesting it's workload in the near future, what is the immediate concern that you have?

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

 

[sibawe2000]

I had exactly the same issue last year : same age, same applications, same LAN size.

If your server is coming "in a few weeks" ... that might mean that it's low priority and that the company you work for might not really know what's at stake. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't have reinstall procedures. (do you?)

To answer your question, the risks could be huge and pretty easy to imagine. Where would you restore your data if your server died? Have you tried to restore critical applications? etc...

Just to be on the safe side, I suggest you take some old PC and promote it as a secondary server (at least with respect to AD). That way, you'll be ready when the new server arrives and your migration will be smoother. It's also a nice way to check your "tight" backups... in my case, it was a way to check that the tapes were dead!

Good luck with your migration.

 

[kenclaimy]

Thanks for your responses.

I don't have a written reinstall procedure, however I do have servers available at another site that are currently used as testing and my plan has always been to use them in the event of a disaster. Going by your advice on the old pc/secondary server I think it's time to do that now using the testing server!
Thanks

 

[sibawe2000]

A testing server will do, ... if it's removed temporarily from the testing department ;-)

Now if you have "other sites" and "testing servers", you might even consider centralizing your data ,like your exchange , your SQL, maybe even your AD. It's easier to manage technically, usually cheaper, but might be hard to accept for the managers...

Cheers

 

[technome]

Huge risk?
Your backing up daily, an authoritative restore would get you back to the time of backup. Unless you have great financial loss due to the data lost after the daily backup, I do not consider it a huge loss. Verify you can restore data from tape, the most important issue.

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[kenclaimy]

Maybe i'm just paranoid . . a bit of backup testing plus extra server would do the trick.

As for the centralisation, this is already planned. I am centralising to one site and deploying the ERP and Office using Citrix, which is already set up

Major delays upgrading internet connections mean the old servers have been running longer than they should have, and even though there is a plan i'm a little nervous!

 

[sibawe2000]

Sorry, I don't quite aggree with the last comment. At least, not if we're dealing with a server restore.

- Given the architecture, if the unique server crashes where do you restore to?
- Is the tape driver installed on whatever spare server you elect? It might even be hardwired into the unique server ...
- I'm no exchange / sql expert, but I doubt that the "restore" button is sufficient if there's a major crash => reinstalling seems a minimum => Now, where's that W2000 CD? on top of the smoking server?
- Don't forget that these emergency operations would take place among 30 hysterical users and an angry boss... Nice inheritance

Tapes are great if you have a procedure and if you're restoring regular files. ok, even if you're restoring a system, but be sure you know how to do it in case of emergency.

Cheers