DFS

[Eddiefdz]

Hello,

I was wondering if many of you out there use DFS for replication? In my case, I have a network file server with about 550gb worth of data and of course i cannot afford any down time if this server ever goes down. Want I wanted to do is to have another server with the same storage capacity and then run DFS to have a complete replica of the data in case my main file server goes down. My main question would be, is DFS the answer to my problems? I also have a regular backup, of course which is going to take care of archiving the file changes and run regular daily backups. Please let me know what you guys think.

Thanks.

Eddie Fernandez
CCNA, Network+, A+, MCP

 

[Rols]

DFS will certailnly sounds like a good fit in your case. If you were using DFS and your one DFS replica went down users could sill access the file using the othe DFS replica with no interuption. This gives you a kind of failover solution. Also DFS will help load balance the file server.

Implementing DFS will not in any way impact your current backup strategy.

Cheers

 

[damputer]

Rols,
Just picking up on the DFS here. We have sbs2000, and the more I read about dfs, the more I like. So, do you need another server for DFS, or can any spare machine be used? Obviously, it requires w2k. Our data is stored on a fat32 partition. Would this be a problem? Can a w98 machine be used for the data replication. I have checked the MS site, but these may be questions I should know the answers to already. If so, just point me in a better direction than the MS site, as I do not at all mind reading to learn.

Thx

Kevin

 

[Eddiefdz]

No the data could only be on NTFS partition. If i were you i would not use just any machine. Try and run somthing like 1ghz and above, with 512mb ram. The server that I run as the replica server is a P3 1.2GHZ with 512mb ram. This machine has a promise raid controller setup with 6 180gb drives at Raid 5. By the way, DFS and FRS is all this machine does. So the setup is like this, I have my main file server, with the same controller and same amount of space. Then I use DFS to create replicas of the share's that I have on the main file server over to the replica server. I just started implementing it this week and i still have some bugs to iron out. I think i am having some DNS issues. This somtimes causes the replication to fail so I want to make sure it runs well before i continue. As people try this out, please post your findings, experiences, problems, etc. Like i said I just began to implement it so I would appreciate as much feedback from uses as possible.

Thanks,

Eddie Fernandez
CCNA, Network+, A+, MCP

 

[damputer]

Thanks Eddiefdz

All the machines in the office are 2Ghz amd with 512mb ram.
The server has Promise Raid0 2-80WD. I have 2 spare machines now(employee attrition)heh. Can the replica be done with XPpro, or do we require another server? You said replica server, so that's what I'm assuming(probably can't talk him into buying another software package)
On a side note, I have set up a trial dfs, and our data is on a fat32 partition(old software, necessary for compatibility), and access to it is not a problem.
Do you mean that replication will only take place on an NTFS partition?

Thanks again

Kevin

 

[Eddiefdz]

Well the issue is the following. The idea behind DFS and FRS is that you will have a fault tolerant network. In this case you are going to need atleast 2 windows 2000 servers. Lets say that the 1st Win2kserver is your main file server which hosts all your network shares. On this server you enable DFS and create the main DFS root. Once you create the root you would create all the DFS links under that root, which would be the network shares. Now file replication comes in when you have another server, win2kserver2, which you would use to replicate the shares. In other words you would create a directory structure just as you have on win2kserver1. Then you could use DFS to replicate the directories. Let me show you what it would look like.

Win2k Server 1 Win2k Server 2
[Raid Drives] replication [Raid Drives]
-share 1 <---> -share 1
-share 2 <---> -share 2
-share 3 <---> -share 3

The fualt tolerance will come in once you have the DFS root replicas running. You will then map to \\domain\share instead of \\server\share. This way DFS keeps all this data on Active Directory. If the main file server ever went down, then the system would know to send the user to one of the replica servers for the data. There is a bunch more you could do with DFS but thats the main.


Eddie Fernandez
CCNA, Network+, A+, MCP