Server 2008 dfs file replication

For more information, see Planning for an Azure File Sync deployment. RDC detects changes to the data in a file and enables DFS Replication to replicate only the changed file blocks instead of the entire file. To use DFS Replication, you must create replication groups and add replicated folders to the groups. Replication groups, replicated folders, and members are illustrated in the following figure.

This figure shows that a replication group is a set of servers, known as members, which participate in the replication of one or more replicated folders. A replicated folder is a folder that stays synchronized on each member. In the figure, there are two replicated folders: Projects and Proposals. As the data changes in each replicated folder, the changes are replicated across connections between the members of the replication group.

The connections between all members form the replication topology. During the recovery, this volume is not available for replication in either direction. For example, creating multiple folders simultaneously with identical names on different servers replicated using FRS causes FRS to rename the older folder s.

If an application opens a file and creates a file lock on it preventing it from being used by other applications while it is open , DFS Replication will not replicate the file until it is closed. If the application opens the file with read-share access, the file can still be replicated. Microsoft does not support creating NTFS hard links to or from files in a replicated folder — doing so can cause replication issues with the affected files.

Hard link files are ignored by DFS Replication and are not replicated. Junction points also are not replicated, and DFS Replication logs event for each junction point it encounters. For more information, see the Ask the Directory Services Team blog. The reparse tag and reparse data buffers are not replicated to other servers because the reparse point only works on the local system.

As such, DFS Replication can replicate folders on volumes that use Data Deduplication in Windows Server , or Single Instance Storage SIS , however, data deduplication information is maintained separately by each server on which the role service is enabled.

No, DFS Replication does not replicate files for which the only change is a change to the timestamp. Additionally, the changed timestamp is not replicated to other members of the replication group unless other changes are made to the file. DFS Replication replicates permission changes for files and folders. Changing ACLs on a large number of files can have an impact on replication performance. However, when using RDC, the amount of data transferred is proportionate to the size of the ACLs, not the size of the entire file.

The amount of disk traffic is still proportional to the size of the files because the files must be read to and from the staging folder. DFS Replication does not merge files when there is a conflict. This ensures that the RPC communication across the Internet is always encrypted. RPC Technical Reference. About Remote Differential Compression. Authentication-Level Constants. There is one update manager per replicated folder. Update managers work independently of one another.

By default, a maximum of 16 four in Windows Server R2 concurrent downloads are shared among all connections and replication groups. Because connections and replication group updates are not serialized, there is no specific order in which updates are received.

If two schedules are opened, updates are generally received and installed from both connections at the same time. If the schedule is open, DFS Replication will replicate changes as it notices them. There is no way to configure a quiet time for files. If you are using Windows Server or Windows Server R2, you can create a read-only replicated folder that replicates content through a one-way connection. Doing so can cause numerous problems including health-check topology errors, staging issues, and problems with the DFS Replication database.

If you are using Windows Server or Windows Server R2, you can simulate a one-way connection by performing the following actions:. Train administrators to make changes only on the server s that you want to designate as primary servers. Then let the changes replicate to the destination servers. Configure the share permissions on the destination servers so that end users do not have Write permissions.

If no changes are allowed on the branch servers, then there is nothing to replicate back, simulating a one-way connection and keeping WAN utilization low. If DFS Replication considers the files identical, it will not replicate them. If changed files have not been replicated, DFS Replication will automatically replicate them when configured to do so. However, this is only a schedule override, and it does not force replication of unchanged or identical files.

During initial replication, the primary member's files will always take precedence in the conflict resolution that occurs if the receiving members have different versions of files on the primary member.

The primary member designation is stored in Active Directory Domain Services, and the designation is cleared after the primary member is ready to replicate, but before all members of the replication group replicate. If the initial replication fails or the DFS Replication service restarts during the replication, the primary member sees the primary member designation in the local DFS Replication database and retries the initial replication.

If the primary member's DFS Replication database is lost after clearing the primary designation in Active Directory Domain Services, but before all members of the replication group complete the initial replication, all members of the replication group fail to replicate the folder because no server is designated as the primary member.

For more information about initial replication, see Create a Replication Group. The primary member designation is used only during the initial replication process. If you use the Dfsradmin command to specify a primary member for a replicated folder after replication is complete, DFS Replication does not designate the server as a primary member in Active Directory Domain Services.

However, if the DFS Replication database on the server subsequently suffers irreversible corruption or data loss, the server attempts to perform an initial replication as the primary member instead of recovering its data from another member of the replication group. Essentially, the server becomes a rogue primary server, which can cause conflicts. For this reason, specify the primary member manually only if you are certain that the initial replication has irretrievably failed.

If remote differential compression RDC is enabled on the connection, inbound replication of a file larger than 64 KB that began replicating immediately prior to the schedule closing or changing to No bandwidth continues when the schedule opens or changes to something other than No bandwidth.

The replication continues from the state it was in when replication stopped. This can delay when the file is available on the receiving member. When DFS Replication detects a conflict, it uses the version of the file that was saved last. It remains there until Conflict and Deleted folder cleanup, which occurs when the Conflict and Deleted folder exceeds the configured size or DFS Replication encounters an Out of disk space error.

The Conflict and Deleted folder is not replicated, and this method of conflict resolution avoids the problem of morphed directories that was possible in FRS. This event does not require user action for the following reasons:. When a quota threshold is reached, it cleans out some of those files. There is no guarantee that conflicting files will be saved.

DFS Replication does not continue to stage files outside of scheduled replication times, if the bandwidth throttling quota has been exceeded, or when connections are disabled. OR You initiate an authoritative restore D4 on one server and: You did not stop the service on all other members of the reinitialized replica set before the NTFRS service restarts after the authoritative restore.

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DFS Replication has an in-box diagnostic report for the replication backlog, replication efficiency, and the number of files and folders in a given replication group. Both show the state of replication. Propagation shows you if files are being replicated to all nodes. Backlog shows you how many files still need to replicate before two computers are in sync. The backlog count is the number of updates that a replication group member has not processed.

On computers running Windows Server R2, Dfsrdiag. Hi Falcon, Thank you for your additional comment. That will be helpful. Monday, January 24, AM. Thursday, September 13, AM. Wednesday, June 18, PM.