Exchange Server 2007 - Standby Continuous Replication
Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) is a feature of Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 that makes it easy to add disaster recovery capabilities to Exchange Server deployments. SCR uses the built-in log file shipping capabilities of Exchange Server to keep a copy of an Exchange database up-to-date on a standby server. This standby server can be placed in a remote location for recovery when an entire datacenter fails. SCR has three characteristics that makes it well-suited for protecting Exchange environments against site-level disasters.
Flexible networking requirements: Because SCR uses simple log shipping, it has generous networking requirements and replicates changes efficiently, making it well-suited for wide area network (WAN) connections. SCR source and target servers do not need to be on the same subnet, and can be located in different Active Directory sites.
Granular configuration: Administrators can turn SCR replication on and off at the storage group level. This makes it easy to replicate a subset of an organization’s mailboxes to a disaster recovery location. SCR supports “many to one” configurations, in which several different servers replicate to one server at a disaster recovery site. SCR also supports “one to many” configurations, in which a database is replicated to multiple disaster recovery sites.
Multiple deployment options: SCR can be combined with Exchange Server’s other built-in methods of high availability, including local continuous replication (LCR), cluster continuous replication (CCR), and single copy clustering (SCC). For example, organizations can deploy a CCR cluster in the main datacenter to keep e-mail services running on a day-to-day basis, and use SCR to provide an off-site recovery option if a major disaster occurs.
These capabilities enable Exchange administrators to deploy a complete high-availability and disaster recovery solution that protects against disk-level, server-level, and site-level failures. Return to the overview of Exchange Server 2007 Business Continuity.
