Looking to have a “Plan B” to goto when our 'Tik at the edge dies.
We recently had lightening issues that took out our server at the edge. I want to have a server standing by for the next event. We were fortunate enough to have another pc to swap hard drives with. The lightening killed all ethernet ports on the pc.
What would be the route to take to keep downtime to a minimum.
be gentle, trying to get the learning curve to swing my way.
M
In the case of a config problem, you can simply implement a backup schedule for the config of the machine, make sure you keep an exact copy of the OS version you’re using also. This would cover you in cases of operator error or drive failure. You’d have to relicense the new drive, but you’d be able to restore the system quickly. It might even be worth it to keep a second licensed drive with the same OS handy, so all you’d have to do is install it and load the last config backup.
For more extensive hardware failures, like ethernet ports or complete systems, just keep spare hardware on hand. If you loose a motherboard, swap the drives and ethernet cards to the spare system. This should be a quick restore method since you’re keeping the same config and ethernet cards, so the config information based on MAC addresses should be the same.
When you lose an ethernet port though, you’re going to have to reconfigure things for the replacement hardware. The MAC(s) will change and your old config will suddenly show for anything on the old ports, so you’ll have to know enough about your system to quickly go in and update the config for the correct replacement ports. In the case of a 4 port card, this means knowing how the ports are numbered on the card and where they go. This is probably the most time consuming restore if you’ve got a complex config.
Basically, for anything like a border router with a lot of ports, keep a complete hot spare system available. You’ll end up using some or all of it depending on how the primary fails.
OSPF or VRRP will reduce downtime by switching to an alternative path.