Mission Critical Backup Server

[HunkaHunkaBurningLove]

I'll be looking at setting up an office network in the near future with five workstations and a server. As the server will be critical to the functioning of the office, is it possible to have a backup server mirroring what the main one does in the event of a failure? Say if the main server goes down for whatever reason, the backup server should be easily switched into a functional role.

I'll be hiring an IT consultant to do the install and setup, but I just wanted to get a grasp of what can be done in mission critical situations to guarantee 100% uptime.

Also, is a hardware firewall recommended for most businesses with internet access or are software firewalls adequate?

[Silver Bullet]

Yes you can have one server mirror another (you'll just need too of the same server) and the appropriate software.

As for network security it depends how you plan to have it setup, I suspect a hardware firewall would be the easier to setup though maybe a bit overkill. I guess also depends on the security requirements of the office.

[willy]

It's a hefty price to pay to maintain 100% uptime as you need to have redundancy on EVERYTHING ... including backup server in *different* physical location.

Also, you may need to budget for backup power as well.

[rilhouse]

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I'll be hiring an IT consultant to do the install and setup, but I just wanted to get a grasp of what can be done in mission critical situations to guarantee 100% uptime.

Also, is a hardware firewall recommended for most businesses with internet access or are software firewalls adequate?

100% uptime is not possible there will always be some small chance of failure (ex. what if the primary & backup server fail?). in the end reliability comes down to how much you want to pay, just ask your IT consultant.

for a SMB I would recommend a hardware firewall they are usually more reliable.

[HunkaHunkaBurningLove]

Thanks guys for the info. I'd like to keep it within a reasonable budget, but I don't mind shelling out a few thousand extra dollars for peace of mind to have that back-up there. Would it be possible to just buy two identical servers, run one, and have the other as a "spare" that could be powered up if needed?

I could easily take out the hard drive from the failed server and pop it into the new one and connect it up quickly. I guess it would be a waste of a computer if it's just sitting around not being used, but I wonder if that might be an option. I suppose that if a virus gets into the server, the other computer wouldn't be much use unless it's a hardware fault.

Would Windows server 2003 or 2008 notice a difference if the two servers were identical? Also, which server software would be better to go with, Windows server 2003 R2 or server 2008?