Windows 2000 System state

[buddd]

Hello,

I am fortunate in the fact that I do not have a system fauilure. I am
trying to go through the motions of a system failure and I would to
reproduce the production environment in a separate test environment,
using different hardware.

My production network is windows 2000 Active directory, with one Domain
Controller only. On this domain controller, Exchange 2000 is installed.

I want to have in my test environment a member server with Exchange
2000 installed on it and a domain controller with Windows 2000 server
on a serparate machine (although these 2 machines would work together
in the test network).

If I back up the system state from the production DC:

1. Can I restore it to my test box which will be my test DC?
2. Do I have to use the same machine name?
3. How does this affect recreation of Exchange? Can I use Echange on a
different box or it must be on the same machine?
4. Can I name the machine for Exchange a different name?
5. Would it be better (in my test environment) to keep the DC and
Exchange together, add a second DC and do a DCPromo on the first DC?
6. How does the fact that there will be the same machine name but a
different SID play into this?

Any information would be appreciated.

I tried contacting Microsoft technical support, and I paid for service,
but I was unable to get straight answers to these questions from them,.
Quite disappointing as they are usually quite helpful.

Thanks in advance,

Mark
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Pegasus]

See below.

Hello,

I am fortunate in the fact that I do not have a system fauilure.

That's not fortunate - that's good planning (which is part of
a server administrator's training).

I am trying to go through the motions of a system failure and I would to
reproduce the production environment in a separate test environment,
using different hardware.

Excellent idea!

My production network is windows 2000 Active directory, with one Domain
Controller only. On this domain controller, Exchange 2000 is installed.

I want to have in my test environment a member server with Exchange
2000 installed on it and a domain controller with Windows 2000 server
on a separate machine (although these 2 machines would work together
in the test network).

A test environment must be completely separate from
a production environment, with no connection of any
kind between the two.

If I back up the system state from the production DC:

1. Can I restore it to my test box which will be my test DC?

Yes, as long as the two machines are identical in every respect.

2. Do I have to use the same machine name?

That's irrelevant, since the two networks are never connected.

3. How does this affect recreation of Exchange? Can I use Echange on a
different box or it must be on the same machine?

The test server is a clone of the production server.

4. Can I name the machine for Exchange a different name?

See your point 2. above.

5. Would it be better (in my test environment) to keep the DC and
Exchange together, add a second DC and do a DCPromo on the first DC?

If the purpose of the exercise is to test a disaster situation
then you must keep the two environments the same.

6. How does the fact that there will be the same machine name but a
different SID play into this?

See your point 2. above.

Any information would be appreciated.

I tried contacting Microsoft technical support, and I paid for service,
but I was unable to get straight answers to these questions from them,.
Quite disappointing as they are usually quite helpful.

Perhaps you did not make it clear whether you wanted a
test environment (to test your ability to recover from a
disaster), or a hot standby setup (to switch rapidly from
one to the other in case of a disaster).