Using a Dedicated Recovery System and Recovery Toolkit

You can use dedicated recovery systems and disaster recovery kits to increase your organization's ability to recover from disasters and to minimize the recovery time.

Using a Dedicated Recovery System

A dedicated recovery system enables prompt recovery because it is available when a disaster occurs. A dedicated recovery system can be one or more Microsoft Exchange Server computers that are used only when a disaster occurs. Dedicated recovery servers are connected to the network, but are not members of a site until needed.

If your organization does not have a dedicated recovery system, recovery efforts can involve locating the necessary server hardware and software, installing the server, and configuring the server for recovery. Even if you have the equipment on site, installing and configuring the recovery server is time consuming. A small organization may need only one dedicated recovery system, whereas a larger organization may need several.

A dedicated recovery system includes:

• Sufficient capacity for the server file system, directory, and information stores.
• Windows NT Server installed as a primary domain controller (PDC), backup domain controller (BDC), or member server.
• A storage device that is compatible with the storage device used for backing up the production system.
• Microsoft Exchange Server installed but no sites configured.

When a mailbox or information store is corrupted, you can use backups to recover the information store to a dedicated recovery server and then restore the mailbox or information store to the production server. When a server fails, you can use backups to restore the server's information store, directory, and configuration to a recovery server and then place the recovery server in production to replace the failed server.

The requirements and procedures for disaster recovery vary widely depending on your system configurations and the circumstances. For more information, visit http://www.microsoft.com/exchange.

Creating a Recovery Toolkit

You can create a recovery toolkit to ensure all needed materials are available when a disaster occurs. A recovery kit can include:

• Operating system configuration sheets.
• EISA/Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) configuration disks.
• Redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) configuration sheets.
• Hardware configuration sheets.
• Microsoft Exchange Server computer configuration sheet.
• Windows NT emergency repair disk.
• Microsoft Exchange Server Performance Optimizer settings sheet.