Ntfrs / Dfs

[crisp82]

I need to find a way of replicating a folder from one server across to another at either regular intervals or whenever a file is updated etc.

Is DFS the best way to go for this?

 

[selene]

maybe.. its one of the jobs of dfs.. im using legato replistor , expensive pos.. I'm going back to using 2003 dfs next month, 1 month studying.. it should be cheaper and easier but I dont know about bandwidth control, etc.

 

[stash]

To do automatic replication with DFS you need active directory.

If you have AD, then this might work, provided that the files do not change too often. For example, replicating profiles with DFS is a Bad Idea.

 

[crisp82]

The servers have AD on them, and it is a specific folder only. Files, not profiles.

 

[MysticLlama]

I use this in production on our webservers.

We have one staging server and 8 live webservers.

They are all part of the domain and all of the site directories are replicated among all the servers. We replicate all 20+ sites to all the servers, but then only run part of the sites on part of the servers. This way we load balance a little better, but still have all the info all over the place in case we need to use it real quick.

If you're running Win2k it should be up and running really fast, I've never had too much trouble with DFS on Win2k. On 2003 though, it acts a little different, and you sometimes have to fiddle with the structure of the DFS to get the best performance out of it.

It took literally a week or week and a half for out structure to decide that it was completely up to date (9 copies of several thousand files and a few GB each), but now that it's done, replication is almost real-time. If we upload 500mb it usually is out to all the servers within 4-5 minutes.

DFS will definately work for what you want to do, PM me with some details about your system, or with any specific questions and I'll help if I can.

 

[azev]

Llama, how do you get over the staging file locations problem with win2k DFS ??
I was working on finding some solid solution on this, but the only solution I got was to edit the ad using asdi and change the location of the staging file. This solution seems to work, but sometimes it doesnt.
One of my file server is still using C drive as the staging file and I need to move it to E. If you can list step by step instruction on this would be great.

Thanks

 

[MysticLlama]

azev-

I've never actually had any need to move my staging directories, so I don't know for sure how you would do that.

Are you doing it because of running out of space, or because of a performance issue?

Since you already know about the ADSI editing, and that isn't working for you, I'd try something a little more tricky.

I'm not sure that this would work, but I'd imagine that if you turned off DFS you could delete the frs-staging folder. Once the folder is deleted, you could make a new folder on the other drive, and then create a junction to it from the main drive. This way, to the system, all the files will look like they are on C, but they will actually all be located wherever you want.

Since FRS is a pretty low-level service, this may or may not work, but it's worth a try.

Here is a great program to create and manage junction points on a system Junction Link Magic

Let me know if it works.

 

[stash]

Moving the frs prestaging area requires more than using asdiedit to change a value. You have to do a non-authoritative restore to move the directory. Here's the article on how to do it:

265085 Moving FRSStagingPath Requires Non-Authoritative Restoration Pre-SP3
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=265085

I should note that in Windows 2000 SP3 and higher (including Windows Server 2003), a non-authoritative restore is not required.

 

[azev]

Llama, the reason I need to move the staging file is because the partition structure of my servers.

C = 5GB
D = 3GB
E = 20GB-400GB

I use DFS to replicate lots of thing, web server, file server, etc.
The web server is not causing lots of problem because the file replicated is pretty small (less than 3GB), but other server that has more than 5GB file is causing lots and lots of problem.
The default staging area is the C drive, and my C drive only hold 5GB minues the OS file.
The weird thing is that I was able to move the staging area location on most of my server, but there are 3 servers that pissin me off. I did exactly the same way to configure them, but these 3 decided not to work. We are going to replace them with newer hardware, and hopefully it works.

Stash, I played with Windows 2003 DFS, and Win2k3 has a way to select the staging area when you setup a replica. Too bad my company does not have the budget to move to win2k3.

 

[stash]

Do you have Win2k SP3 or higher? The same functionality is in >SP3...it maybe a registry change though, I would need to look that up.

 

[MysticLlama]

I'm gonna defer to STaSh on this one, he could be right about the SP making the difference on those servers.

If you have another server around you could sacrifice for a 2k3 box, you can do DFS on Win2k3 Web Edition, which is only around $400 if you know where to get it 😉 😉 <nudge><nudge>

Thought don't think that Win2k3 solves all the problems, it's got some issues of it's own that caused us lots of problems and that won't be fixed until SP1.

Make sure that SP3 is installed, then try the stuff in the KB article that STaSh posted, but be sure to take note of this:

"Once the new value for the staging path has replicated to the domain controller that the FRS replica member is bound to, restart the FRS service. FRS on non-domain controllers favors domain controllers in the same Active Directory site. Domain controllers bind to themselves for configuration data."

You need to be sure to stop FRS on all the DCs and make the changes before you restart them or replication may possibly nullify your changes, that could also be what's blowing it up for you.

Is there any pattern with those three servers? All DCs, all not DCs, all without the SP, etc.? Try to find a common denominator.