I have a two windows server 2003 R2 servers with same configuration(same processor,same motherboard etc). One is original server and another one is backup server(Not to store backup files,it is a server used in case original server gets crashed). So in case any hardware problem in original server like motherboard problem then I remove all the hard disk from original server(Including drive containing OS) and connect it to backup server. So I will have low down time. The configuration was same OS was also working properly after changing drive having Windows OS.
Now we have plan to purchase new server with windows server 2012 and we will be purchasing Intel 2600 family processor and supporting motherboard as original server. For backup server I will be purchasing Intel 2400 family processor and its supported motherboard. So in case of any problem in original server Does shifting hard disk(like I was doing before) will work?(In ordinary windows 7 pc it was not working when hardware changes are there) . If it does not work then what is the solution? How this kind of hardware errors are handled by using backup server or any other methods to do the same. Is there any procedures to take backup of existing server configurations like folder permissions, software configurations, users etc.? If yes, can i restore the backup of main server to alternate server in case of server failure? Please suggest me on this.
We have our own backup program and we are taking backup in regular basis. Only thing we are confused about is hardware failure.