AD replicate to server in Co-Location

[ferg]

G'Day List,

Greetings and best wishes.

Can someone point me in the right direction to get my AD to replicate to a
server that's in a co-location ?

I am setting up for Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity.
In the co-location site I plan to have:
Citrix/Terminal Server
Exchange 2003 Server
File/Application server
Domain Controller.
Firewall
Router

with the idea that if we have to shutdown the production LAN due to a raging
Florida hurricane, users will connect to the co-location through Citrix/TS
and work just as though they were connecting to the office. I am still
undecided on which one but , DoubleTake or NeverFail will be handling the
real-time replication of the E2K3 and File and Application servers right up
until the moment we failover the system.

Now how do I go about getting the Active Directory in the office to
replicate to the DC in the colocation site real-time with the idea that if
the office is shutdown, users connecting to the colo will still get AD
authentication?

Any ideas and thoughts welcome on all parts of the colocation setup.

Thanks

 

[Jmnts]

I'm not sure how many domains do you have....

But it seams only one, so you can define two ipsubnets linked to the same
site, and configure the domain controllers with the proper Ip configurations
settings for each site. Configure DNS to have a AD integrated Zone and
configure replication to be domain or forest wide.

In the Exchange situation you can only use Clustering to provide full
tolerance.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2000/library/dme2ksc.mspx

In the File Server you can use DFS - Distributed File System:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/dfs.mspx

Make sure that users will have always access to name resolution (DNS)
available to find the Domain controllers, and that the firewall allows
clients to query AD, allow zone transfers to one site to another.

Best Regards.

 

[ferg]

Thanks for the feedback, I will look into it.

I'm not sure how many domains do you have....

But it seams only one, so you can define two ipsubnets linked to the same
site, and configure the domain controllers with the proper Ip
configurations settings for each site. Configure DNS to have a AD
integrated Zone and configure replication to be domain or forest wide.

In the Exchange situation you can only use Clustering to provide full
tolerance.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2000/library/dme2ksc.mspx

In the File Server you can use DFS - Distributed File System:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/dfs.mspx

Make sure that users will have always access to name resolution (DNS)
available to find the Domain controllers, and that the firewall allows
clients to query AD, allow zone transfers to one site to another.

Best Regards.

 

[daveberm]

You may want to look at LifeKeeper as well as DoubleTake and NeverFail.
LifeKeeper has a built in Active Directory replication engine so when
you fail Exchange over to the secondary site, LifeKeeper forces Active
Director to replicate throughout the entire forest. DoubleTake and
NeverFail both rely on Windows to replicate the changes, which can
cause delays in client redirection once a failover has occured.

http://www.steeleye.com/solutions/exchange.html

Disclaimer - I am a SteelEye employee

 

[ferg]

Thanks, I look into it.

 

[Mark]

You're much better off with xosoft ( www.xosoft.com ) or steeleye,
rather than neverfail or doubletake. xosoft is your best overall
solution, although steeleye is starting to look really good.

Mark

 

[ferg]

Mark, Thanks. Will do.

You're much better off with xosoft ( www.xosoft.com ) or steeleye,
rather than neverfail or doubletake. xosoft is your best overall
solution, although steeleye is starting to look really good.

Mark