Offsite Server Networking (Advanced)

[Crew]

I have a question for those of you who know networking very well. ATM im working on an offsite disaster recovery program, This consists of getting backups from multiple servers to my office and those backups are being created into a virtual image that can be booted from Virtual Box.

So the backup server at my office contains multiple virutal Operating systems that are created daily from backups of other servers. I can start these and run them, i need to be able to start these from my location and have them work as an offsite server for the client, so host it from my end straight to there end. Ive got some ideas on how im going to do this, but ideas would be much appriciated. If you need info on the Networking gear, please ask!

[macpro622776]

Set up a VPN connection from their office to the VM's network, and get the workers to open the VPN if the server's down. That should work.

[Darren]

So these users are in a third location, whose computers have a backup image created and stored offsite, and in the event of their computer crashing, you wan't them to log into that backup image spun up as a Virtual Machine? Is that correct?

[ygohome]

@Crew That is actually a pretty good plan for disaster recovery.

 

Sorry I don't have any input on your questions though.  In my small/simple family business infrastructure, it would be pretty simply... setup the VMs with their static IPs and set DNS name to point to the new WAN ip at the offsite location.   I'm sure there is more involved but I can't think of what it would be without having tried it.

 

Do the servers need to be offline while the images are being made?  And how often are the images made?  I actually would like to hear about what networking gear is involved with your setup.

 

Thanks

 

 

*also, I wonder how quickly turnaround time is to get the VMs up and operational/accessible from the moment disaster strikes. 

[Crew]

the VMS are created automatically with the backups, the backups are taken twice a day locally then FTP to my network Opp center. the VMs dont get started unless we need them. The client sided server never has to be turned off (and never gets turned off)  it takes about 15 minutes to boot the VM (which is always made and current) and have it fully operational. I thought about VPN but im not going to do that, i want it to be like nothing ever changed to the client with the quickest turn around time. ideally the client will go from no server to a virtual offsite server in about 15-20 minutes. i was thinking about using NAT, the idea i have is when something happens while the virtual server is spinning up i would remote into their router (some clients will need to have all locations upgraded to a router that supports this) and make their server internal IP ( example: 192.168.1.100) resolve to our external address using a porting method. once it hits our external, (example 74.78.122.12) it resolves to the internet address of the new virtual server. that was any IP based programs and mapped drive should have no hiccup.  i have a router that supports multiple Virtual IPs on a WAN port. this way i can assign different IPs to different clients in the off chance multiple servers go offline at the same time. the router is a ZyXEL ZyWALL USG 50. If this works like it should, downtime for a client would be about 15-20 minutes in total, enough for a smoke break and some chit chat, then back to work.  What are your thoughts? 

[macpro622776]

Sounds good to me.

[ygohome]

I think I want that router.

 

@Crew   seems like you have a great plan.   After you get it setup and tested, please update us on how it went.  I'd like to try something similar.

[Crew]

just to clarify this will not have anything to do with VPN connections or Remote desktop.