Hi,

I’m facing a problem I still can’t find a solution to.

Short description below.

ESXi virtualization environment has a Windows Server 2016 Datacenter installed. 

The Server has AD switched on, for the sake of our discussion I’m naming it “contoso.local”.

There are shared resources on the virtualized server such as shared folders and files, also there is MS SQL server which receives incoming connections from Windows clients (Win10/11).

What do I need to achieve?

I need to create another virtualized Windows Server 2016 Datacenter or Standard which will be an alternative server that will start offering its services immediately in case of the another server failure. What do I mean by  “immediately” here?

I mean, the switching procedure/time must be immediate and all the resources such as shared folders or SQL databases must be up-to-date. So, if at 1:00 PM the first server has a failure (disconnected, shut down by mistake etc), the other server must take control of the client machines at 1:05 PM. And as I mention all shared resources and SQL connections must stay the same but on the second server. The users on client machines can’t have their work disrupted (any open Word documents in shared foilders intact or financial software connections kept on). 

I’m aware of the fact that the second server must be a sort of replica that works all the time and receives data from the server so it must be a 1-1 copy of all data that it constantly updates itself with new data coming from the first server.

The question is – how can this be done ? I tried Cluster failover, storage replica already but this mechanism didn’t work out. I created two disks (logs, data) according to step-by-step instructions but it is still not a solution to the problem. 

I’ll appreciate any advice to my issue 

​Hi,I’m facing a problem I still can’t find a solution to.Short description below.ESXi virtualization environment has a Windows Server 2016 Datacenter installed. The Server has AD switched on, for the sake of our discussion I’m naming it “contoso.local”.There are shared resources on the virtualized server such as shared folders and files, also there is MS SQL server which receives incoming connections from Windows clients (Win10/11).What do I need to achieve?I need to create another virtualized Windows Server 2016 Datacenter or Standard which will be an alternative server that will start offering its services immediately in case of the another server failure. What do I mean by  “immediately” here?I mean, the switching procedure/time must be immediate and all the resources such as shared folders or SQL databases must be up-to-date. So, if at 1:00 PM the first server has a failure (disconnected, shut down by mistake etc), the other server must take control of the client machines at 1:05 PM. And as I mention all shared resources and SQL connections must stay the same but on the second server. The users on client machines can’t have their work disrupted (any open Word documents in shared foilders intact or financial software connections kept on). I’m aware of the fact that the second server must be a sort of replica that works all the time and receives data from the server so it must be a 1-1 copy of all data that it constantly updates itself with new data coming from the first server.The question is – how can this be done ? I tried Cluster failover, storage replica already but this mechanism didn’t work out. I created two disks (logs, data) according to step-by-step instructions but it is still not a solution to the problem. I’ll appreciate any advice to my issue   Read More

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