Question : How to Mirror 2 network drives as single drive for failover?

I have a w2k server environment with 3 computers, A, B and C.
I need to create a virtual network drive on computer A, call it A'
A' represents a mirror of separate arrays on computers B and C.

In this configuration, I need to be able to remove and rebuild an array on B or C without it effecting the availability of A'
Computers accessing A' will be unaware if B or C fails.

I am looking at Veritas Sotrage Manager and CA High Availability as software solutions. However, I think there may be something cheaper and simpler. Legatos Replistor (http://portal1.legato.com/products/replistor/?mode=details) seems to be a good solution for Replication, but I don't think it will create the virtual network drive A'.

In summary, I need a virtual network drive which represents a network mirror of a 2 separate disk arrays and provides transparent failover in the event that either of the arrays goes down. How do I do it?

Any thoughts?

thanks,
keith

Answer : How to Mirror 2 network drives as single drive for failover?

Domain-based Dfs root. A domain-based Dfs root must be hosted on a domain member server or domain controller. Such servers, called root replicas, provide referrals to the Dfs namespace for client machines. Domain-based Dfs stores its configuration information in Active Directory. If you have more than one domain controller (to keep the Dfs configuration information available) and if you establish more than one Dfs server in the domain, domain-based Dfs can provide high availability for any Dfs file or folder in the domain.

Stand-alone Dfs root. A stand-alone Dfs root can be hosted on three types of Windows 2000 servers: on a stand-alone server, a member server, or on a domain controller. A stand-alone Dfs server does not use Active Directory, cannot have root-level replicas, and can have only a single level of Dfs links. Stand-alone Dfs stores its configuration in the local registry. Its purpose is to provide backward compatibility with earlier versions of Dfs. During an upgrade of Windows NT 4.0 to Windows 2000, any Dfs 4.x roots are converted automatically to Windows 2000 stand-alone Dfs roots. You can manage Dfs 4.x implementations with the Windows 2000 Dfs Administrator. You can migrate stand-alone Dfs roots at your own pace. Some roots can remain as stand-alone; others can be migrated to domain-based. Both can coexist in a Windows 2000 domain.

So, this means you can use it with the ads or without ads, it depends on your environment and needs.

Intellimirror services is a core part of AD, providing User data management, Software installation and maintenance, User settings management,Computer settings management and Remote installation services. It is not directly related to DFS or FRS but as it provide core services in AD it is linked to them at some time.

FRS performs full replication for ntfs volumes.  FRS is always activated for domain-based Dfs root replicas. for a description of DFS and FRS features, check the following

http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/evaluate/featfunc/images/FILE04A.GIF