I have a client who has a main office with SBS 2000. 5 PCs at a satellite office connects to the main office using the VPN / dial up tick box at logon to connect to and logon to the network. This works very well considering the size of the shoestring budget.
However recently they had a large ADSL outage at the main office which means that the remote office couldn't connect / access files.
Which now brings me to the question. (I have limited WAN knowledge).Other than a backup route using modems (expensive and slow) can there be a way of having a server at the remote office which stores its own copy of the main office data and can sync back to the master every day, so that in the event that the remote office can't connect, they can use local data which then is resynced back to the master data once ADSL is restored.
Fortunately, the remote office amends slighty different data than the main office, so the risk that '2 offices edit the same file on the same day...and which is the right version' scenario shouldn't be an issue.
Hope this all makes sense
Terry
Hi Terry,
Perhaps the easiest option for the remote office users would to have offline folders, so that if the VPN connection isn't available then data is available on each workstation. When back online, these will sync back to the server.
There is Microsoft's Distributed File System (I'm not sure whether this was part of SBS 2000 - before my time), but using this would require Windows Server 2003 Std Ed at the remote office. I've not used this but have seen scenarios described where data can be replicated and you basically see it as one logical entity :-
http://www.smallbizserver.net/Default.aspx?tabid=53&forumid=11&postid=16853&view=topic
Cheers,
Vijay
Vijay,
Thanks for the info. I will look at this and swot up to see if it will help. My only concern is that they current hold around 35Gb of data on the server, so I would have to manually migrate the data to each workstation for offline folders, hence the idea of a member / secondary server.
I am still open to other ideas or if anyone here has done something similiar
You don't need to manually migrate offline folders. From each workstation (on the remote side), just right click over the appropriate folders and choose offline folders. This creates the offline folder on the workstation. You don't need to offline the whole Share, it depends what data they access regularly. Also, only differences in changes are synced so as to keep the amount of data transferred to a minimum.
I can see where your coming from, but the client is a letting agency and at any time could need any file on the system to look at property details / pictures / availability etc. While each office generally looks the files which relate to their own area, they do get people that want a wider search to see all their options, hence the need to replicate the entire 'company folder' at the remote office incase of connection failure.
How would other companies get around a similiar situation?
So questions that need to be answered:
Depending on the answers to 1 and 2, you could either consider something like some form of replication script that updates a cache on a local or usb hd For hard disks, you can get 60-80GB USB powered drives that can easily be synced up once a week/ every night etc
The amount that needs to be synced would be determined by 3. Depending on the solution, if might also be worth consider hosting a solution to minimise the cost of ADSL pumping out lots of data on a thin line. Also, if access from anywhere is required, hosting a solution and providing people with 3G cards on an unlimited plan might be the answer. Some 3G services are now unlimited in the UK.
just some thoughts
ttfn
David
1. Up to 5 users at the remote office, so it varies, but around 150Mb / day wouldn't be unrealistic. They have docs / window card that are 10Mb each
2. Varies, but again anything up to 150Mb
3. They have hard copy documents to show prospects, but its emails / bookings via exchange that drives the business.
4. Hard to say since they can carry on working, but booking are done by calling the main office and using the fax.
I had thought of using robocopy, or another script, but have come across synctoy which may do the job. I need to set up a system at our office to replicate their environment.
At the end of the day they want something thats cheap, easy for them to use (as in turn on and walk away) and gives them a fall back position with the ADSL goes down (about 3 times a year on average) If the outage was regular I would suggest 3G, but for the few times a year it would be needed its an expensive option.
Im starting to think:
Synctoy for a local cache of the main data
Modem backup route for Exchange / Calender / Bookings
Often the simple ideas are the reliable ones
You might also want to try www.foldershare.com
As I read down the post I was wondering if anyone would mention FolderShare - we use it with a number of clients very sucessfully - either as a group (using the same account) or with individual accounts subscribed to different folders. The Shared Documents folder in XP works very well for this.
While we're on the subject though, I'd like to ask whether David knows what MS plans are for FolderShare as it would be a shame to have to tell clients that their easy workgroup foldersyncing is coming to an end...
On the other strand - Windows Server R2 does include a more efficient DFS mechanism with the ability to do 'delta' type syncing for big files which is much more efficient. Unfortunately I understand that that has been left out of SBS R2 which is a great shame.
Edmund
As already mentioned by others (and youself) there are sync'ing tools out there that will do the job of keeping a local copy of the data up to date.
Couple of other things to consider though.
1st, get an ISP that cares about their customers!!! Whilst ultimately you are at the mercy of BT some ISPs seem to be better at beating BT over the head with a big stick than others. Personally I would suggest Andrews & Arnold (www.aa.nu).
Secondly, consider putting in a second ADSL line into the main office. Personally I would avoid the really cheap ones as you may have problems with blocked traffic but for £20/month you could have a backup ADSL line for when the main line goes down. You can get clever with hardware to fallback onto the standby line but I am guessing this would be too expensive. I would setup DNS with some spare hostnames to point at the second line's static IP address - e.g. vpn2.clientcompany.com then if the main line goes down just tell the remote clients to use a different DUN connection.
Just my 2p worth
They currently use BT for their adsl, and its usually a case that the whole area goes down rather than a single line, so having multiple lines wouldn't work. Not sure about the folder share idea, but I have tested the idea of using sync toy over VPN and the 'proof of concept' shows that this will work.
I now need to find a VPN box to automatically connect to SBS. Does any one have any suggestions?...but got to be less than £150
cheers
(c)David Overton 2006-23