[NTLUG:Discuss] Backup ntlug.org server

[Robert Pearson]

Chris Cox wrote---
>Well.. I can ask.  But remember, we have  FREE ride.
>Space at provider is the MOST expensive part of their
>operation.  Bandwidth can be increased, but it's not
>easy to increase real estate.

This sounds like a really interesting exercise for those of us who haven't
had the opportunity to do this in the real world. The objective would be
to come up with a useful strategy or game-plan that could be implemented
for NTLUG as well as any SOHO.

Several scenarios come to mind immediately:
(1) Remote monitoring--already scheduled to be implemented by NTLUG
  (a) "A finger on the pulse"
  (b) a "heartbeat" monitor on the site and server--
(2) Active mirror at the hosting site--no space available at hosting site
(3) Active cluster at the hosting site--same as above

This leaves:
========
(4) Active remote mirror--this is done all the time if bandwidth is no
problem
(5) Active remote cluster--Pros? Cons?
I personally haven't installed geographically dispersed clustered machines.
I have done dispersed sites but all clusters were within each site. The
mirrors
were remote.

As well as:
========
(6) Passive remote mirror--not sure this would do any good except for
Disaster Recovery
(7) Passive remote cluster--I doubt this will do any good at all

What about:
========
(8) Peer-to-Peer mirroring on several active servers
(9) Is this do-able over DSL or Cable Modem?

I have worked on redundant mail servers that were geographically
dispersed and there were always synchronization problems that did not
become apparent until fail-over. What experience or problems has
anyone else had?

This is probably not a good topic for Discuss so off-line may be best.

Thanks,

Robert Pearson
rdpears2001 at yahoo.com

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