I presently have 1 dedicated virtual server running my website/blog/mail, etc. This is on Hyper-V with 512MB RAM. Windows Web2008. With the VM, I have these running within it:

• SmarterMail – for emails
• MS DNS – I have my own nameservers on this server
• SQL Express
• IIS7
• 2 IP Address

I have now leased 2 physical servers : P4 2.6Ghz 1GB RAM 80GB HDD. With these new servers, I get 2 IPs per server as well. These are running Windows 2008 Standard. With the VM the HDD was obviously on a RAID setup so I was not worried about hardware issues as it fell on the provider to manage. However, with the new servers the HDD is not RAID’d, hence my concern is that if it fails I need a backup position.

What would be the most ideal setup to go for? I am thinking:

Server 1: (Web/PrimaryDNS)

• DNS – NS1
• SQL Express – OFF turn on when required, ie. Server2 is down
• SmarterMail – OFF turn on when required, ie. Server2 is down
• IIS 7

Server2:(SQL/Backup)

• DNS – NS2
• SQL Web Edition
• SmarterMail
• IIS 7

How can I set it up so that if 1 goes down I can have everything on 2 instantly or by manual switching over. I am confused as other DNS servers will cache the web servers IP address for requests, and if that server goes down, the backup server will have a different IP. How do I make this work?

I will be doing routine backups, in which case I will keep copies of backups on both servers. If I am copying the same stuff on both servers like a mirror then I am losing on using the true performance out of it. It's like 1 server is always on standby.

Ideally I want SQL and web on 2 diff machines for best performance. If Server1 goes down, I should be able to switch to Server2 fairly easily. I don't have a problem with manual intervention to start the sql/mail services, etc.

In terms of scalabilty, the VM has coped pretty well to date. Moving forward the SQL and IIS workload is going to double pretty quickly.

Some ideas would be great.