Power failures and power fluctuations are computer system killers. Every computer have uninterruptible power systems installed, but sometimes unthinkable things do happen. We’ve been hit by power outage as usually, but what’s surprising is our Dell PowerEdge 2550 computer server lost power.

The Dell PowerEdge was placed on a server rack which have it’s own cooling fans and power outlet. A close investigation revealed that the power outlet for that rack was not passing through the uninterruptible power system. It’s really a terrible error on the server rack setup.

Now, I have to face a Windows 2000 Server with MSSQL Database flashing the popular “blue screen of death” even before Windows could be loaded. It points to system error which could be fixed by running “CHKDSK /F”. But there’s no DOS command prompt to run the command. So, I got a Windows 2000 Server CD and started Repair option on console. The repair went fine with CHKDSK /F command.

Restarting the server have passed the initial Windows loading stage when suddenly before logon prompt the whole screen turned blue again. It would take longer to repair a crashed Windows 2000 system. Thus, a spare standby computer server was commissioned and the backup data was restored unto it.

A standby computer server is not the most economical disaster recovery solution. Thus, we’re considering a virtual server backup machine with automatic data replication. Scalability and load balancing are some of the reasons why virtual server backup solution is appropriate for our needs.