Hi We currently have 1 on-premise exchange server 2013 Std. We are planning to purchase a backup exchange server and thinking of using Azure VM connecting via site to site VPN. I know Azure doesn't officially support exchange server but as a backup server (cold backup from disaster recovery perspective).
only one on-premise server where exchange is installed. So i am planning to use two VMs 1 for AD replica and another to install Exchange 2013. Will this be a good idea?
1. 1 core D1 instance to replicate on-prem DC (can act as a backup AD as well)
2. D3 Instance where I would install backup exchange server
3. 2 X 1 TB GRS
4. VPN
5. Also backup on-prem exchange VM on a separate Azure GRS (1 TB). We have a tool that does that today.
Is there anything to consider. Could we keep the back-up exchange server running in parallel in the event that the primary goes down, how does the backup server would kick-in? what needs to be done for that.
Any ides would greatly appreciate it. We are a small firm about 20 users so we don't need enterprise class D/R considerations.