Cisco Works & Disaster Recovery

[mbutorac1]

Howdy,

Has anyone had any experience with implementing Cisco Works in a Disaster Recovery environment? Any issue with moving the data to another server? another IP address? another machine name?

Thanks,

Mike

[Joe Clarke]

The backup from one server will restore to another (provided the OSes and versions match). You will most likely need to do a hostname change after doing the restoration (if the hostnames are different).

While thr hostname change procedure is complex, it does work. See

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/cscowork/ps3996/products_user_guide_chapter09186a00806feee5.html#wp1078582 for Windows instructions and http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/cscowork/ps2073/products_installation_guide_chapter09186a00806a5db2.html#wp1046056 for Solaris.

What we have seen in the TAC is that some customers maintain an identical server (down to hostname and IP) for disaster recovery. This server is kept offline until needed. At that time, it is brought up on the network with a restore from the active server. This may, devices don't need any reconfiguration, and everything works as expected.

[mbutorac1]

The DR machine will be at a different site so a different IP address on the server. Is this a problem?

Thanks,

Mike

[Joe Clarke]

As I said, it can be done with a different IP/hostname, just be aware of the hostname change procedure. You will also need to make sure all of your devices are configured so that both machines can manage them. For example, check ACLs, syslog configuration, firewall config, etc.

[mbutorac1]

Cool & thank you.