Re: [LUG] Backup server (was Re: [LUG])

[Neil Stone <Neil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Johnson wrote:
> On Tuesday 07 Oct 2003 16:41, Mark Harvey wrote:
>
> > They have now been advised to have a second, backup, server. The package
> > supplier has advised that the data will be copied at the end of day, which
> > means that in the event of a failure, the data could be as much as one day
> > out of sync. Is there a way that _we_ could implement a second server
> > whereby that data was kept concurrent?
> >
> > I know there was an article on building a backup server in Linux Format a
> > while back but AFAIR that used cron to copy the data and therefore it was
> > not a fully concurrent system either.
> >
> > Any suggestions gratefully received.
>
>
> Does the data *really* need to be up-to-the-second?
> Would a cron job running an rsync every 10 or 20 minutes not be sufficient?
>
> Alternatively, a method I find works well (as long as you're running Linux on 
> the server) is to have a machine standing by of a similar (preferably 
> identical) spec and configuration. Then when your main machine fails, simply 
> put the hard disks into the spare machine and power it up. Then when the 
> original machine is repaired, simply swap the drives back. Using hard disk 
> caddys makes this take a matter of seconds.
>
> HTH,
>
> David.

Hot spare server anyone ?? Get the 2 servers to monitor each other and 
take over tasks in the event of failure of the other... clustering and 
heartbeat monitoring is what you wanna google on...


Neil Stone


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