Question : Problem: Exchange Server Disaster Recovery

I'm trying to figure out the best way to have a hot backup of our exchange server off site in case of catastrophic failure.  Currently we have an exchange 2003 standard server running on server 2003 standard.  I have a server in a datacenter off site that we have a VPN tunnel to and that functions as a backup domain controller as well.  I was thinking about possibly doing a cluster with a server off site and a server on site, but I'm not sure how well that works and I've heard something about exchange 2007 being better for stuff like this.  Your help would be greatly appreciated as I need to figure this out, and test it in our test environment before going live.  

So basically, I need a solution to actively replicate my active exchange server to a hot standby.

Answer : Problem: Exchange Server Disaster Recovery

Clusters are only really good where the Exchange Servers are at the same location (so they can access a SAN for shared storage). While you CAN do clusters over a VPN link, it's the last thing I would want to try, when there is an easier option out there. Plus, you can't cluster with your current equipment - all nodes in a cluster must run Windows Server Enterprise Edition, and when it comes to Exchange, only the Enterprise Edition supports Clustering. This advanced feature support in each version is quite obviously reflected in the price of those products.

Perhaps a much easier option would be a product like DoubleTake. It is one of the leading third-party products in the industry for managing replication of Exchange Servers, as well as SQL Servers, File Servers and many other things. One of the main advantages is you configure the replication with a few simple clicks (nothing as complicated as a cluster), and the DoubleTake software handles failover and everything else automatically. It is, of course, not a Microsoft standard software, but for the price when compared with the thousands of dollars a cluster will set you back (both in hardware and software), the product is unbeatable. See http://www.doubletake.com/english/products/double-take-windows/Pages/default.aspx.

-tigermatt