DR Strategy

Question

DR Strategy

Chrissy321

SSCoach

Points: 15763
More actions
November 10, 2010 at 8:48 am

#146207

I have a vmware based 2005 SQL Server. It contains small databases and ssis packages/processing.
For DR purposes I'd like to bring this server up in a remote DR site with the same name. I would use a vm image to do this.
I'd then would restore all the user and system databases. Is this a viable strategy?
Is restoring master recommended or should I script out the users and then run the script on the DR server?

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply

Geoff A SSChampion Points: 11511 More actions · Answer 1

this is a bit confusing to me??

if you plan on using the existing VMware image, why would you do anything with the DB? are the database disks not a part of the VMWare file system?

you should be able to pick up your entire VMWare directory where your DB server lives. put that directory on your DR sites VMWare server and open the .vmk file.....

of course, you will have to turn off the virtual machine to make that initial copy. 😉

alen teplitsky SSC-Dedicated Points: 30014 More actions · Answer 2

how are you going to get the image to the DR site? you can ship it via SAN replication software or if you use Netbackup or something similar for backups you can just backup the vmk file to tape and restore there

Geoff A SSChampion Points: 11511 More actions · Answer 3

you could also copy the whole thing to a USB disk, use unc pathing if available, copy it to a laptop, ftp, etc....

SQLBuddy123 One Orange Chip Points: 28294 More actions · Answer 4

You can use SAN synchronous or asynchronous replication for Datablock level copy onto the DR Site and then during the disaster, boot your VM from the remote site. Things will be up and running.

Thank You,

Best Regards,

SQLBuddy

Chrissy321 SSCoach Points: 15763 More actions · Answer 5

We are going to backup the vm image and ship it to the DR site but this won't be real time, it will be a periodic backup. The database files are part of the vm file system. We will also be sending all backup files to the DR site

So when I bring up the vm in the DR site the databases will not be current and I will need to restore the backups and transaction logs. I'll need to restore msdb since my jobs change frequently.

What I am not sure about is the master database and my logins and whether the master should be restored or I should script the logins?

MANU-J. SSC-Dedicated Points: 31126 More actions · Answer 6

If you script out the logins and create the linked servers(if any) on the DR site then there shouldn't be a requirement to restore the master.

MJ

george sibbald SSC Guru Points: 104210 More actions · Answer 7

How often will the contents of the master database change? surely not that often so a restore or recreate objects from scripts should not be necessary at all.

Maybe you should make your VM backups more frequent or do them after changes to master?

This is a DR strategy so be prepared to be able to do both (db restore and recreate objects from script) in case of problems.

As the server will have the same name a restore of master is viable, you will get everything back in one go.

---------------------------------------------------------------------