Replicating Directory Structure 1

[acl03]

We have one main location and 9 field offices. Each office is running a 2003 file server.

What we'd like is a way to mirror their folder structure at our main office. So if their server goes down, we swap their drive mapping to the main office server.

This can be a one-way mirror. Is this something easily done? Thanks!



Thanks,
Andrew

 

[58sniper]

[google]Windows server dfs[/google]

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[w33mhz]

58sniper does have the best way there, another way is to use the Robocopy utility.

 

[acl03]

Ok - i'll check out DFS today...thanks guys.





Thanks,
Andrew

 

[acl03]

Ok all of our servers are 2003 Sp1. I'm having trouble finding a good explanation of what DFS can do, and how to set it up.

Do we need a different version of windows server to do this?

Any good references available that I can read?



Thanks,
Andrew

 

[58sniper]

I usually refer to

Implementing DFS Replication

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Implementing-DFS-Replication.html

But that also includes references to R2 features you won't have.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[acl03]

Hmm - is it worth upgrading to R2 for replication? Or is what I want doable in SP1?

And....would we have to upgrade all our servers to R2?



Thanks,
Andrew

 

[58sniper]

Upgrading can be expensive, and you'd have to upgrade all of the DFS targets. The DFS in R2 is far superior to the pre-R2 version. But the pre-R2 version works quite well.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[acl03]

I just set up a DFS root, added 2 targets, turned on replication and now it looks like its working. I can add/delete files from both locations and in seconds its updated to the other one.

Is it really this simple? Do i just set up DFS roots for each of my field offices?



Thanks,
Andrew

 

[58sniper]

Well, if you want to setup replicas of the data that you're already replicating, you'd add more folder targets. If you want to replicate OTHER data, then you can add more roots.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[acl03]

Right - 9 separate offices, each with their own data. So i'd have 9 roots...right?



Thanks,
Andrew

 

[58sniper]

You could. You also could just add folders to the existing root, with different folder targets for each.

I would highly recommend putting R2 on your "radar screen". The R2 version has very flexible bandwidth throttling, as well as only sending the bits of files that have changed instead of the whole file. My experience with DFS is that the biggest problem you'll ever run into is bandwidth consumption.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[acl03]

Couple things...

If we have one central server to which all 9 offices are repliacting, would we need 10 upgrades to R2, or just 1?

Also - can we make it a 1-way repliaction, simply from the field office to the central office, and not the other way around?



Thanks,
Andrew

 

[58sniper]

Not positive about the first one, but I think they all need to be R2 for the features to work.

Yes, you can do that (at least in the R2 version). I haven't looked at the non-R2 version in a while.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt