On Tuesday 18 December 2007 14:39:42 Johnny Hughes wrote: > Kai Schaetzl wrote: > > Frank Cox wrote on Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:55:49 -0600: > >> A spare computer that can be swapped in to replace any of 4 other > >> computers without requiring a lot of setup between "the main machine > >> died" and "the spare is now online." > > > > But what about the data? What is a "web sevrer" or a "file server" worth > > without the current data? > > This was to be my point exactly ... what good does a machine that can > boot up into a file server with last months data or a web server with > last months data be if the current server just died? > > If you have a backup system in place with the ability to push certain > directories onto this machine, then maybe. Otherwise, this seems fairly > pointless. > > A live solution with Virtual Machines and something like DRBD might work > ... though the machine would by fairly heavily loaded just keeping > everything updated if live for 4 other machines. > > Thanks, > Johnny Hughes Here is an idea. Put removable hard drive enclosures into each machine. The 4 working machines have a spare hard drive in and has a disk back up (hard drive mirror) run nightly. A working machine goes down just take out backup drive put into spare machine and go. -- Guy Fawkes, the only man to enter the house's of Parliament with honest intentions, (he was going to blow them up!) Registered Linux user number 414240