[AccessD] OT - Using Connection Strings For Disaster Recovery

To all,

I am work on implementing a new section to the disaster recovery of my own
projects, one of the things I am currently looking into is having a .ini
file with connection string to my main server something like:

	Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security
Info=False;User ID=myusername;Initial Catalog=mydatabase;Data
Source=mysourcemain1

Each day I make my own backup of the main database, but if our main server
went down what I want to be able to detect if the connection string is
valid, if not use the next one in the sequence:

	Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security
Info=False;User ID=myusername;Initial Catalog=mydatabase;Data
Source=mysourcemain2

So that although my dataenvironment, ADO controls etc point to
mysourcemain1, if mysourcemain1 shuts down...I can go to the latest backup
that I have and restore on mysourcemain2 then let everyone back in
again....i.e. I want something like the following:

	Open the .ini file as text
	Check if the first connection string is ok
	if ok then set the datasources to it
	if not ok warn user and alert administraors of possibility of server
down
	get the next connection string and recheck 
	loop until found valid string

Is there a way of check if a connection string to a SQL Server would work
before trying to open the connection ?

If anyone could help me on this I would be very grateful, sample code and/or
guidance greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Paul Hartland