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Server mirroring

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by george

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My question is this, I have an client who want to have 2 servers in 2 seperate country's.
With windows server 2003, exchange.
Is there a way to setup them up to be the same.
with data sharing. So if one goes down the other site can still function. ?

thank you

6 replies

by d'solve it

Hi,

2 servers in 2 separate countries to be mirrored. hmmm. What is the nature of data sharing are you looking at? Is it website (IIS)? Is it ftp (IIS)? or MS SQL server? Please be specific.

It is possible to miror/replicate, but different scenaios call for different solutions. :-)

by bfilmfan

If by your question is it possible to have an Active/Active Exchange cluster that is in 2 different countries, the answer is most likely not. The time period between heartbeats on an Active/Active Exchange cluster is no more than 500 milliseconds and nore more than 1900 Active MAPI connections per cluster.

In addition, depending on the SAN technology being used, there will be a distance factor involved that the SANs can asynchronously or synchronously replicate. Keep in mind however that DR applications such as synchronous data replication are sensitive to latency, which is tied directly to distance. Speed of light propagation dictates about one millisecond of latency for every 100 miles. A thousand mile span between primary and DR sites, for example, would inject roughly 10 milliseconds of latency each way, or 20 milliseconds latency round trip. For synchronous applications, vendors typically recommend a maximum of 150-200 miles between sites as a maximum based on the performance impact incurred.

by bfilmfan

Thus, your client would be forced to use asynchronous SAN replication, but this would not be real-time data. This question is covered in particular detail in this Q&A on Search Tech:

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/ateQuestionNResponse/0,289625,sid5_cid605062_tax297597,00.html

You should also note that Clustering is only available with Microsoft Enterprise and Datacenter Editions. Both Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition and Datacenter Edition will support server cluster configurations of up to 8 nodes. This change was made to allow increased flexibility for deployments: particularly for geographically dispersed cluster configurations, and to support N+I configurations (N active with I spare). N+I will be particularly important for supporting larger Microsoft Exchange Server deployments using Windows Server 2003 into the future.

If your client can afford the expensive involved (and I will relate that it is HUGE and more than the entire operating budget of many firms), then I recommend that you begin your research with an article on Windows IT Pro:

http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=24890&pg=1

I would also recommend that you review the Exchange 2003 Technical documentation library located here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/library/default.mspx

by george

Again thank you all. this give some more to think about. and how I will proceed from here ..

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