creating an image of a Raid 1 Array

[Jason]

I have two servers that are exactly the same in terms of hardware.
They are both using Serial ATA hard drives (120 GB each)in Raid 1
array. I have one of the servers configured exactly the way I want.
I would like to image the drives in the configured server so that I
have a backup of the drives to use in the backup server.

Can I break the array on the configured server, take one of the disks
from it and put it in the unconfigured server and copy the image from
the configured disk to the unconfigured disk on the backup server?
Then I want to take that original configured disk and put it back in
the original configured server and rebuild the array.

The bottom line is, what is the best way to have an exact copy of the
configured server on the unconfigured server to be used as a backup
machine? Any help would greatly be appreciated.

J.D.

 

[Tim]

I have never used sysprep, but others at this point in time seem to utter
sysprep.

I am assuming a hardware config such as an Intel 865 or 875 system using
Intel ICH5R and Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server. These comments no doubt
apply equally or similarly to other hardware RAID solutions. I recommend you
use 36gb raptors for this if they exceed the size you need as the RAID 1
Sync time will be proportionately reduced for a smaller drive. Controllers
such as Promise, 3ware etc. may provide the ability to "Eject" or Power Off
a drive at run time - this is whats needed as currently there isn't a way to
tell the ICH5R that you want to cease using a drive and allow safe removal.

What you are thinking will work, but there are a few issues:
1. The clone system will have the same SID as the original (Windows). This
is bad, but there are ways to fix it. Basically, you can have only 1 Windows
system with a given SID on a network.
2. Syncing a RAID 1 volume on such a system takes about 1 minute per GB. IE
it is *slow*.
3. Other methods such as Drive Image , Ghost etc. may be faster and solve #1
at the same time, but may entail more actual work.
4. Ideally you will want both systems to be identical in all respects: IE
same motherboard, chipset, revision level, CPU model and stepping, same
optional features etc. Otherwise it will be necessary to do a Windows Repair
install of the target clone prior to first boot.
5. The Intel raid / sata does not fully support Hot Swap. The underlying
ability is there but it is not fully implemented. If you wish to use hot
swap then verify it is supported by the raid vendor you choose prior to
purchase.

The method is simple:

- The Live system is up and runnning and in sync.
- The 2nd drive is removed (when shut down to be safe).
- The standby system has no drives in it and is not connected to the network
(Its purpose is to be a plug in replacement for the Live server only, so
having the same SID may not be an issue).
- The 2nd drive is inserted into the standby as its 1st.
- Standby is fired up & shutdown.
- Spare clean disc is inserted into second slot on the Standby
- Standby is fired up, logged on, and the 2 drives are allowed to sync. This
takes about 1 hour 40 minutes for a drive of 120gb.
- You can now shutdown the standy, take out the disc in its 1st slot (2nd
from Live) and return it to live for another sync, put another virgin disc
into the 1st slot on the Standby and fire both up again and wait yonks for
that to sync too.

I am interested to know how you get on as I have 4 1U servers coming that
will all be spares for each other with swappable discs. I think this will be
increasingly common.

Make sure you rehease this and use the latest bios / firmware / driver sets.
I recently had to do a Sync of a broken RAID 1 with older IAA-Raid and the
system was unusable during the sync as it would lock up for about 1 minute
every other minute.

Sysprep:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/planning/incremental/sysprep11.asp
Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/tools/sysprep/default.asp

If your system is XP then make sure you check out the appropriate sysprep
version. I believe there is a totally new one on the XP SP2 CD.

- Tim