duBBle said:
I'm trying to help a friend who needs to replace a very old server in his
office that is about to die. The OS on it right now is NT. He has an Idea of
purchasing 2 PC's with Windows 2003 Server and just transfer the data from
the old Server to both of the new PC's purchased. Then he would like the 2
new pc's to mirror each other somehow so that if one of the pc's goes down
the other takes over and the users still have access as if nothing happened.
Is this even possible? Thanks in advance for your help.
See here for migrating/upgrading NT4 server to Windows 2003 server:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/upgrading/nt4/upgradeassistance/default.mspx
If he wants seamless 'mission critical' fault tolerance (which is what you
described with "have access as if nothing happened") then he'll probably
want Windows 2003 Enterprise (or Datacenter) Server and cluster the two
machines.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/bdmtdm/default.mspx
The least painful migration might be to upgrade the existing server, if the
hardware will support 2003 (or 2000), and add the new machines to the
cluster. Then remove the old one from the cluster. (could perhaps conserve
server licensing by adding one new machine to the old one for a 2 machine
cluster, then take down the old one and add the second new one. That way
only two servers are operating at any one time.)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/clustering/rllupnet.mspx
You can't do a rolling upgrade directly from NT4, which is why I mentioned
upgrading it first to either Windows 2003 or 2000.
An alternate to upgrading the old machine (hardware too old, etc.) might be
to clone it, NT4 server, first to one of the new ones and then upgrade the
new one, now NT4, to Server 2003 and then cluster in the second one. That's
more installs, potential clone problems (especially with an NT4 system),
and more down time than doing it native on the old one though, if it can
handle it.
Don't under estimate the transition from NT4 to Windows Server 2003. You're
entering the brave new world of active directory that NT4 doesn't support;
meaning you don't just pop the CD in and 'go'. I haven't read this chat
session but it's on migrating NT4 to Server 2003 so it may have some useful
information for you.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/chats//trans/windowsnet/wnet0414.mspx