asterisk users - Mar 2008 - Newbie Asterisk: Disaster Recovery Proof Asterisk

I am planning to roll out Asterisk to some offices and I have been
thinking about how to disaster proof the box.

For the production box, of course, it will have RAID 1 disk drives and
2GB memory at least.

a) If the office burns down, there is nothing much I could do.
b) If it is software error, then good luck with the trouble-shooting.
c) If the hardware fails, then I could call for the vendor to come to
replace faulty hardware but this is going to take at least 2 to 4 hours
no matter how much you pay for the warranty.

It is because of (c) that prompts me to think about configuring a cheap
desktop as a hot box so that if the production box fails disastrously,
then I could simply move the PRI cable to the hot box and business
should continue.
However, this will require the production box daily copying (rsync) all
the changed files to the hot box.
Is this a good idea?  Or is there a better idea?  Or am I too paranoid?
What do you guys do out there?

From a lot of experience - you are not being anywhere near paranoid 
enough !!!!!!!!!!
Think dual RAID controllers, Dual power supplies off of, at a Minimum, 
separate isolated circuits, with Hefty UPS that is in-line so it filters 
the power,  think mirrored systems with a simple from switch from Black 
Box that will throw the lines over to the working box. Think -hmmm, how 
to keep v-mail between boxes in sync. Think remote console access to the 
server below multi-user level
Think... is your azz is on the line for this install, I would give real 
consideration about doing this until you hzve a better plan, more $$$ in 
hand or a SLA  to the end user that is very very forgiving.
My 2 cents, worth all that you pad for it :)

Lee, John (Sydney) wrote:
> I am planning to roll out Asterisk to some offices and I have been
> thinking about how to disaster proof the box.
>
> For the production box, of course, it will have RAID 1 disk drives and
> 2GB memory at least.
>
> a) If the office burns down, there is nothing much I could do.
> b) If it is software error, then good luck with the trouble-shooting.
> c) If the hardware fails, then I could call for the vendor to come to
> replace faulty hardware but this is going to take at least 2 to 4 hours
> no matter how much you pay for the warranty.
>
> It is because of (c) that prompts me to think about configuring a cheap
> desktop as a hot box so that if the production box fails disastrously,
> then I could simply move the PRI cable to the hot box and business
> should continue.
> However, this will require the production box daily copying (rsync) all
> the changed files to the hot box.
> Is this a good idea?  Or is there a better idea?  Or am I too paranoid?
> What do you guys do out there?
>
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