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Hi,
Please also reference to this official document:
The Microsoft policy for disk duplication of Windows installations
Cloning Windows Server Data
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ark
41
Reputation points
I have a Dell Server running Windows Server 2016 and RAID 5 using four 4 TB drives.
I am wanting to clone the OS partition from this server onto an exact duplicate server which will be used as a backup server if the primary fails. It will literally be powered off until the primary fails.
I have software on the server that is licensed and I'm told if any cloning process modify's the GUID's of the primary server, the licensing will break.
What is the best approach for cloning or creating an exact duplicate of the data from the primary server onto the backup?
Microsoft System Center Other
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Ollie IT Man 171 Reputation points2022-09-28T14:05:15.7+00:00 Hi @ark
Can you give us some more information on what services/software you have running on the server?
Having a cold standby server can get out of date very quickly and can become a nightmare to keep relevant and up to date (both software and security).
Do both servers have the correct licensing or is it only the primary server that is licensed?
Cloning the server will effect licensing. Microsoft server licenses are tied to the processor/s in the server so moving the software to a new server will break the Microsoft license agreement.
In most cases where my customer want to have a standby, I've recommended setting up the second server live on the network and have it added / sync the services you want to have backed up. eg:
Secondary AD controller
DFS sync of file share data
Sync on SQL databases
Windows backup location for primary server
Secondary Exchange
Secondary IISIf you are using third party software, having the software installed but not configured and get the software backups from the primary server to secondary server. In the event the primary fails, load the software, restore from back and you are up and running again (assuming you have redundancies setup already for DNS / routing).
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Ollie IT Man 171 Reputation points
2022-09-30T13:43:36.697+00:00 Did you manage to find the answer you were looking for?
If you did, can you add on here so other may find it useful.
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