Server Clone / Copy / Backup

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wiredaire Author

Level 1

0 points

Server Clone / Copy / Backup

Hi,

this is what i would like:

Server running 10.6.8

another server running beside it with the exact same data, OS etc

So if one server crashes the other can be turned on, apart from IP addressing changes, will then just run as if nothing has happend.

This is in an effort to stop several hours downtime for waiting for backup to transfer data back

The sever is only used as a file server and the main backup server.

Has anyone done this succesfully and how, and if not why not

Thanks

Xserve, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Nov 19, 2012 5:52 PM

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Answer 1

pkmusic

Level 1

131 points

Nov 19, 2012 6:02 PM in response to wiredaire

The way I have always run OS X server is to partition the boot drive. Then I use Carbon Copy Cloner or diskutil to keep an up to date clone of the server on the other partion. All shares are on a separate hard drive. Should one server 'side' fail, I can boot into the other and carry on. This method obviously does not protect against catastrophic hardware failure, i.e. the whole machine dies. I have off-site backups for this. However, in all the time I have run OS X server, I have very rarely had a complete hardware failure. I have however, had to go into the site and boot into the other volume quite a few times. The method you are suggesting would be problematic for DNS and I can't see a workaround for that.

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