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Requirements

Your source server must meet the requirements below. In addition, each target server must meet certain requirements, however, they depend on the type of target server you will be using. See the specific requirements for each migration type for target server requirements. To see details on the migration type best suited for your environment, see Selecting a migration type.

Additionally, verify the machine where you are running the console meets the Double-Take Console requirements , and review the Mirroring and replication capabilities to understand the type of data that Double-Take protects.

• Operating system—The source server can be a physical or virtual server running any of the following operating system editions.

• Windows Server 2003 or 2003 R2 Datacenter, Enterprise (i386, x64), Standard (i386, x64), Web Server, Small Business Server, or Storage Server Edition. Each of the Windows 2003 operating systems require Service Pack 1 or later.

• Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 Datacenter, Enterprise (i386, x64), Standard (i386, x64), Essential Business Server, Web Server, Foundation Server, Small Business Server, or Storage Server Edition

• File system—Double-Take supports the NTFS file system. FAT and FAT32 are no longer supported.

• System memory—The minimum system memory on each server should be 1 GB. The recommended amount for each server is 2 GB.

• Disk space for program files—This is the amount of disk space needed for the Double-Take program files. For Windows 2003, this is approximately 300 MB. For Windows 2008, this is approximately 375 MB.

  The program files can be installed to any volume while the Microsoft Windows Installer files are automatically installed to the operating system boot volume.

  Make sure you have additional disk space for Double-Take queuing, logging, and so on.

   

• Server name—Double-Take includes Unicode file system support, but your server name must still be in ASCII format. If you have the need to use a server's fully-qualified domain name, your server cannot start with a numeric character because that will be interpreted as an IP address.

• Protocols and networking—Your servers must meet the following protocol and networking requirements.

  • Your servers must have TCP/IP with static IP addressing. (Some job types allow you to add DHCP addresses for failover monitoring, although only after a job has already been created. Keep in mind that depending on your failover configuration, a source reboot may or may not cause a failover but having a new address assigned by DHCP may also cause a failover.)
  • By default, Double-Take is configured for IPv6 and IPv4 environments, but the Double-Take service will automatically check the server at service startup and modify the appropriate setting if the server is only configured for IPv4. If you later add IPv6, you will need to manually modify the DefaultProtocol server setting. See Server and job settings for details.
  • IPv6 is only supported for Windows 2008 servers.
  • If you are using IPv6 on your servers, your clients must be run from an IPv6 capable machine.
  • In order to properly resolve IPv6 addresses to a hostname, a reverse lookup entry should be made in DNS.

• Microsoft .NET Framework—Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5 Service Pack 1 is required. This version is not included in the .NET version 4.0 release. Therefore, even if you have .NET version 4.0 installed, you will also need version 3.5.1. You can install this version from the Double-Take CD, via a web connection during the Double-Take installation, or from a copy you have obtained manually from the Microsoft web site.

• Windows firewall—If you have Windows firewall enabled on your servers, there are two requirements for the Windows firewall configuration.

  • The Double-Take installation program will automatically attempt to configure ports 6320, 6325, and 6326 for Double-Take. If you cancel this step, you will have to configure the ports manually.
  • If you are using the Double-Take Console to push installations out to your servers you will have to open firewall ports for WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation), which uses RPC (Remote Procedure Call). By default, RPC will use ports at random above 1024, and these ports must be open on your firewall. RPC ports can be configured to a specific range by specific registry changes and a reboot. See the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 154596 for instructions. Additionally, you will need to open firewall ports for SMB (server message block) communications which uses ports 135-139 and port 445. As an alternative, you can disable the Windows firewall temporarily until the push installations are complete.

  See Firewalls for instructions on handling firewalls in your environment.

• NAT support—Double-Take does not support NAT configurations because you must select an actual IP address on your source and target servers for monitoring and routing data. You cannot use external addresses.