Danbabe

Hi Jinx, Sorry, just seen your post! It definitely sounds like your PC and not the server. In fact, it sounds like the offline folder sync, seeing as said the icon was flashing and you could not get rid of it. Have you tried disabling the offline folder sync on your desktop altogether? Then run gpupdate again and reboot the desktop. That should do it! Dan

I have purchased 2 identicle HP servers at the same time. I have built the first server with 2003 SBS importing all old emails into exchange and set-up on a RAID 1 config using 2 x 160GB drives. This server is now running perfectly. It is important to know at this stage that the server has no client machines attached as the server is mainly for exchange only. All of the staff connect to exchange using OWA and some use Outlook Anywhere over HTTPS. The question I have is the client wants a failover system that should the first server be unavailable, the second server kicks in automatically. This is now when I am lost. What I have done so far is to wait for the first server's RAID to finish building so we now have 2 drives with an identicle image on. I then removed the secondary hard drive from the the first server and replaced it with a formatted blank 160Gb drive. I then rebooted the server and rebuilt the RAID from the master drive to the new secondary drive. This seems to be going fine. My plan is to install the above hard drive from the first server into the second physical server, set up the RAID 1 using the primary hard drive with the above image and a spare formatted secondary drive. Then to rebuild the RAID again, on the second server. The main reason I have done this is so that the user account SID's are the same on both servers which I would not have got by building the second server from scratch. I then plan to change to OS key on the second server and activate this accordingly. How am I going to keep the second server running as well as the first server both running up-to date Active Directory (with identicle SID's) and Exchange mail so if the first server fails for any reason, the users will not see any loss of data or services and all of their emails will be kept up-to date and readily available over OWA and / or Outlook Anywhere? It is imperitive that the user account SID's are the same on both servers. I need a system that if I add a new member of staff or make any AD changes such as passwords or permissions, both servers again, have the same SID's and any changes in AD are instantly changed on both servers. Is there a way of autoamating this for both servers. I cannot believe my client is the only company in the world that wants to achieve this failover service and therefore someone out there must have set this up in the past. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks Dan

Thanks guys. Some very good points there. Does anyone recommend specific gigabit NICS? I will try replacing them first I think before I look at the switch. I am currently using D-Link DFE530TX with th correct drivers installed from the D-Link CD for Win2K3. Any suggestions welcomed... Dan

I have two servers running Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition connected to each other via GB Lan cards through a Gigabit switch. One of the servers is a backup server. When I copy huge files (lets say 100Gb) from one server to other, the Networking performance says I am using upto 36% of the lan speed. How can I tune the performance to make sure it utilises as much of the Gbs connection speed as possible and therefore copy the large files faster? I have TCP/IP, NWLink/IPX/SPX NetBIOS and NWLink/NetBIOS protocals installed on both servers. They are connected through a gigabit switch on the same subnet and domain (both domain controllers). I do have a 100Mbs firewall but thats just to the outside world and therfore should not be effecting the speed within the LAN. Has anyone come across this before where the LAN speed is not utilising it's maximum speed efficiently? Any help and ideas much appreciated chaps. Dan

I am about to build about 5 web servers. I have the servers, switches and routers with static IP addresses and cabinets and cables. Can anyone recommend a good firewall that does not have to act as a router as I have those. I would like to simply plug the routers into a firewall, firewall into a switch and the servers into the switch. That way the firewall does the trick but what firewall is good for several web servers? I was looking at the Watchguard FireFox as this seems to be within my budget but i would need to check if it's rackmountable: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/112428 Any suggestions or ideas? Preferably one that can disable NAT (or not have it) but just allow traffic through specific ports only i.e. 80, 8080, 21, 3389 etc... and have a web based config gui. Thanks for looking and any help you may be able to offer. Dan

Thanks DSF2. That sounds good - I guess! How would set up a VPN connection specifically for the purpose and what is Robocopy in scheduler? I have used the windows scheduler several times but never heard of this. Dan

Thanks for your response Gosh. I wonder if this would be safe enough from 'prying eyes' or hackers? Anyone have ano other ideas or know how to make FTP more safe than just a username and password? Is there no way this could work based on IP address? Only accept a username and password from a specific IP address only? I don't know... Dan

Thanks Fat64 but I was looking for a more automated way that the servers can talk to each other. There must be some way that you can get the server to back itself up overnight but across the web at a specified time but has to authenticate first. Anyone? Dan

Hi guys, I am by no means any expert on Windows 2003 Server but a client needs help. I have built several 2003 servers without any problems all registered on the net with static IP addresses. A client of mine is concerned that their information and files need backing up externally from their building in case of fire or flood. They also have a 2003 Server and wondered if I can somehow set-up a private / secure connection for their server to talk to my server so it can back-up their files externally to my server. Has anyone any ideas? Whilst I really appreciate you reading and hopefully responding to this problem, if anyone has any answers, could you please describe fully how I can achieve this or send me links to published tutorials that will help me achieve this. Many thanks chaps. Dan