Rebuilding the server has the following advantages and disadvantages in comparison to restoring the server or keeping a stand-by recovery server:
- Advantages
- Because you are not backing up almost every file on all the hard disks, less disk space or tapes is required for the backup sets.
- You usually end up with a cleaner, more stable operating system environment with better performance than if you restored a server from full computer backups.
This is because when you restore a server, all or most of the folders and drives from your full computer backup set are restored. As a result, that backup set may include files that are damaged or incorrect versions, which may have contributed to the disaster. For this reason, when you restore a server from full computer backups, you may be copying those instabilities to your replacement server.
However, when you rebuild a server, the installation of the operating system and other applications, including Exchange, are clean, thereby reducing the risk of introducing errors that could affect the performance of your server running Exchange 2000.
- By rebuilding the server instead of restoring it, the risk of your Exchange server experiencing the same disaster is greatly reduced.
- Disadvantages
- Rebuilding a server running Exchange 2000 generally takes longer than restoring a server from full computer backups.
- You may experience severe problems if any of the replacement hardware (for example, disk drives) on the server being rebuilt is different than the hardware on the original server. These problems may occur because the replacement hardware may not be compatible with the configuration information contained in the Windows 2000 System State data that you restored with the Windows backup set.
Furthermore, if you rebuild a computer that has a different CPU, chip set, processor, or other operating system components than the original server, you may not be able to start Windows 2000 properly. To avoid this problem, ensure that you have replacement hardware that is identical to the hardware you are currently using, or consider using the stand-by recovery server method.
Tip To resolve these issues if they occur, start Windows 2000 in Safe Mode after you restore the Windows backup set, remove the drivers for the different hardware, restart the computer, and then allow the computer to detect the different hardware. Keep in mind that you may still experience problems integrating or installing the new drivers into your server. These problems are similar to those that many users experience when installing new hardware.
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
- Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003, Premium Edition
- Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003, Standard Edition
- Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
