Thanks for the response Tim. I haven't seen the Exchange piece, so I just assumed it would be a somewhat familiar interface. I understand your point (knowing where to find the answer). I agree with you 100% and for the most part, we have very capable Analysts on staff. Unfortunately, we operate in such a fast paced environment, and we're so woefully understaffed, cross-training folks on even the basic administration of Exchange is a fantasy at best. To compensate for that, we're forced to write supporting documentation of our major systems in a manor that even a 5 yr old could understand. The concept being that anyone off the street could pick up the document and follows steps 1 - X without "much" worry of something going wrong. I personally disagree with that whole thought process because I want the person performing those steps to understand what they're doing, but sometimes that just isn't the case.
Anyway, thanks again for the response. I have a little while before having to make a decision. Maybe I'll just pray we hire some more competent folks between now and then. - Sean On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 12:02 PM, Tim Vander Kooi <tvanderk...@expl.com>wrote: > Sean, > > You will find that the Exchange replication piece of Double-Take is not > actually built into the regular console (at least it wasn’t when I used it), > it is a separate stand alone app. It works great, but it somewhat negates > your “everyone already knows it” argument. As for SCR and the use of it, > anyone who can access TechNet has full access to how to use it. There are > literally step by step instructions on how to configure and use SCR on > TechNet. I prefer that my people don’t necessarily know the answer, but know > where to find it. > > YMMV, > > TVK > > > > > > *From:* Sean Martin [mailto:seanmarti...@gmail.com] > *Sent:* Friday, April 17, 2009 2:14 PM > *To:* MS-Exchange Admin Issues > *Subject:* Re: Is anyone using SCR for Exchange 2007? > > > > Tim, > > > > I'm interested in your take on switching from DoubleTake to SCR. We're > still on Exchange 2003 with no replication solution in place. We're planning > on moving to Exchange 2007 early next year (or possibly 2010, depending on > release date) and implementing DR/HA along with it. > > > > We use DoubleTake quite extensively for various systems. I've discussed > using DoubleTake for Exhcange 20xx when the time comes or using SCR (or some > iteration of built in replication). The one argument point for implementing > DoubleTake is that most all of our staff are familiar with it, and could > step in during a failover scenario. Whereas using SCR for example, may > require some in-depth knowledge of Exchange (for which there are only a > couple of us). I've argued, based on my limited knowledge of Exchange 2007, > that the failover process is scripted, and therefore could be built/tested > beforehand. As long as we had detailed documentation for executing failover, > most of our staff should be able to follow instructions and initiate > failover. This would be for those rare times that the few folks with > Exchange knowledge were unavailable. > > > > I'm not sure what your environment is like, but did you have to consider > anything similar when making the switch? If so, do you feel confident that > any of your staff could handle a failover situation should you not be > available? > > > > - Sean > > On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 11:01 AM, Tim Vander Kooi <tvanderk...@expl.com> > wrote: > > I use it. I was using Double-Take prior to SCR and making the switch is > saving me more than switching to GEICO. It was very simple to set up and > works great. > > TVK > > > > *From:* David Baca [mailto:dbaca.gr...@yahoo.com] > *Sent:* Friday, April 17, 2009 12:33 PM > *To:* MS-Exchange Admin Issues > *Subject:* Is anyone using SCR for Exchange 2007? > > > > I would like to hear some thoughts about it. I am currently using > neverfail software but the maintenance costs are pretty high. I was > wondering if anyone had experience with a successful deployment of scr and > whether they would recommend it. > > > Regards, > > > David > > > > > > > > > > > > > ~ Ninja Email Security with Cloudmark Spam Engine Gets Image Spam ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Ninja ~
