Hello, I am a Linux system administrator working for small and big companies, managing all kind of software, setup and weirdness. I have already done few install like the one you are looking for. The best way to achieve your goal will be using a DRBD disk and heartbeat. The primary server will sync his disk to the secondary one. If the first fails, heartbeat will start service on the second and after few seconds of delay, all is again up and running. The advantage of this solution is the lack of "manual sync": all is automatically synced. Having a disk in DRBD is however a performance loss we have to take into account when choosing the server hardware (I don't know how busy is your server). I can provide an ongoing support with monitoring for a fee to be contracted. More detail on what is needed via PM. About me, I am 37, italian (GMT+1), ready to work with you.