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Thread: Mirroring a drive via network?

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    DR
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    Mirroring a drive via network?

    I run a local box here I need to mirror to another box, issue is it can't be taken offline - can it be mirrored over a lan easily?

    Its an exchange box basically....

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    Treasure Hunter extraordinaire herulach's Avatar
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    I think the corporate version of ghost will do this kind of thing, however you might have to do a reboot, which is the machine that cant come offline? The one that youre imaging from or to?

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    Im fairly sure that the imaging solution from Acronis will backup a system in real-time, so it doesnt need to be taken offline.
    You can then simply extract this image on the host machine. It may even have the tools to do exactly what you want (transfer and extract over the LAN - you'll need to check though)
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    DR
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    I don't mind having to reboot but I don't want to pull it out and mess with it

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    Agent of the System ikonia's Avatar
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    define mirror.

    eg: make an "image" to be able to restore the box from if it where to die
    Mirror the whole machines data for use if files are lost corrupted
    mirror certain portions of the disc such as say - a website so it is available in the event of a disk failure or corruption ?
    It is Inevitable.....


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    DR
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    Ideally I would like to have a copy of all the data on the drive incase it fails....

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    if that's all you need, then something like "rdiff" would do the job. i'm sure there's a windows version.

    if you want a bootable end-result, then it's tricker - because you can't really make a copy of a "live" disk without the risk of the data changing during the backup, unless your file system supports snapshotting

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    DR
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    Basically I want to have the mirror on another box - which I can then put on a new drive for when the one in that box fails...


    I would like to be able to access the mirror or mount it if needed
    Last edited by DR; 22-03-2006 at 01:53 PM.

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    Acronis True Image will allow you to take an image to a network share while the system is live. You can then mount the image as a drive in Windows if you need to extract anything from the image - I use it (well, the corporate workstation version) at work to backup people's laptops without having to kick them off them and it works fine. Corp Workstation version even comes with a management console so you can manage the backups from other machines without having to logon to either the machine being backed up or the machine taking the image.

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    Agent of the System ikonia's Avatar
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    perhaps not mirroring over the network would be a better choice in that senario, or as directhex suggest rsync/rdiff style application of none OS style data.
    It is Inevitable.....


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    Depends how much you're willing to spend.

    Also, I still haven't quite worked out whether you just want the data, or if you want a constantly up-to-date exact copy of the drive/volume.

    Veritas Volume Replicator will do the second - replicates at block level across the LAN, can replicate in synchronous mode so that the database will be consistent at all times. This is the thing you won't get if you just use file-level replication, or a timed snapshot that doesn't quiesce the database during the snap (but then this wouldn't always be up-to-date).

    If you need it always up-to-date, and with consistent write-order, and across the LAN rather than SAN-based, then you're going to need to use something like Volume Replicator. However, it's not cheap (I don't know exact figures, but when I say "not cheap", I really mean "not cheap". It's Enterprise-level software, and it's priced to match ), and you have to install the whole Storage Foundation to both servers to use it. There may be consumer block-level volume replication software out there, but I'm not aware of it...

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    DR
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    I want a copy of the drive which I can restore if something goes wrong.

    If I can get a copy of the data at the same time (which I can pick what I restore) then thats great, but if not then...

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Barkotron
    There may be consumer block-level volume replication software out there, but I'm not aware of it...
    dd!

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    Quote Originally Posted by David
    I want a copy of the drive which I can restore if something goes wrong.

    If I can get a copy of the data at the same time (which I can pick what I restore) then thats great, but if not then...
    I would have though that you'll want to take an image of the machine and copy it to a network drive.

    my personal favourite for this is drive snapshot ( see the sticky - www.drivesnapshot.de )
    it can be run from a command line and hence scheduled.
    It will make incremental images so that you wont always be taking a full image.
    It will also run from a PE disk , so in the event of a restore there you are.

    you could also use windows backup to make backups of your system state and exchange information stores , although you'll have ....fun resotring them if they go wrong. ( a spare box could be built as a backup domain controller , which would mean you would less of your AD to rebuild in a faliure situation.
    my Virtualisation Blog http://jfvi.co.uk Virtualisation Podcast http://vsoup.net

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    Quote Originally Posted by directhex
    dd!
    DD won't do live block-level replication of an NTFS volume under Windows though will it? He's running Exchange, so I doubt many *nix commands are going to help...

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    Almost in control. autopilot's Avatar
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    I spent ages and ages trying to find the right backup and mirroring solution, but could not find just the right solution for me. Eventually i came across robocopy, which is perfect for me as i can tailor it to suit any job exactly the way i want it. I would recommend robocopy (robust copy) myself. It's free (from Microsoft, but it's very good).

    It's extremely flexible, powerful and supports network backups/mirroring with good verification and bandwidth use (so you dont saturate the network).

    In mirror mode, it will only copy whats changed etc. I use it for backing up my music/photo collection, so if i delete a file from the source then backing up wont remove it (although it will replace changed files if you so wish).

    It's command line driven although there are GUI's for it. Personally i just use batch scripts.

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