Is this method of installing backup store servers good?

[John Fulton <fultonj@lafayette.edu>]

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Anyone on the list have cold backup store servers? How did you install
them?

I'm doing a multi server install. I have two data centers each with a
pair of store servers and a SAN. Two store servers in one data center
will remain in production the two in the other data center are for
disaster recovery and would be given the same network names during fail
over.

I'm able to push block level clones of LUNs between data centers quickly
via EMC SAN Copy. During the multi server install you install the right
server in the right order (ldap, store, mta, proxy). For two store
servers, with two passive backups I can either:

1. Install all four store servers as if they're going into production at
once.

2. Install only two store servers, finish the install, and finally shut
the installed store servers down and clone their /opt/zimbra to the
second SAN for the second set of store servers to use.

Option two seems simpler since I don't want to confuse the multi server
set into thinking that my backup servers are an active part of the set
and then try to remove them and stop their zimbra processes. I also plan
to clone the production LUNs regularly for quicker recovery and to get
users back to a point in time clone of their data in a disaster (after
an e2fsck).

Are there any potential problems with this plan or better ways to
achieve my goal?

Thanks,
  John
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John Fulton, Assoc. Director IT Systems, 610-330-5650
Lafayette College, 11 Pardee Dr, Easton PA 18042-1775

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