Creating a DFS Folder and Replication Group
Creating a DFS folder is
similar to creating the DFS root. A folder can be created to target
existing shares or folders beneath shares, or a new share can be created
on the desired server or servers. As recommended previously, pre-create
the file share on an NTFS folder and properly configure the share and
NTFS permissions for each folder target that will be added to the
folder.
When a new folder is created
with multiple folder targets, a replication group can be created at the
same time. To create a folder within an existing namespace, perform the
following steps:
1. | Log on to the Windows Server 2008 R2 system with an account with local server administrator privileges.
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2. | Pre-create and set NTFS permissions on the servers and shares that will host the DFS namespace folder.
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3. | Click Start, click All Programs, click Administrative Tools, and select DFS Management.
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4. | Select the Namespaces node, and then double-click the Namespaces node to expose the existing namespaces.
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5. | If
the desired namespace does not appear, in the Actions pane, click on
the Add Namespaces to Display link and follow the steps to search for
and add an existing namespace to the console view.
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6. | Select the desired existing namespace, and in the Actions pane, click on the New Folder link.
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7. | When the New Folder window opens, type in the name of the folder and click the Add button to locate the folder targets.
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8. | After all the folder target servers have been added to the New Folder window, click OK to continue, as shown in Figure 4.
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9. | When
a new folder is created and multiple targets are specified, a
Replication pop-up window opens, asking if a replication group should be
created. Click Yes to create a new replication group for the folder
targets.
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10. | When
the Replication Group and Replicate Folder Name window opens, review
the name of the proposed replication group name and the replicated
folder name, and click Next to continue. The prepopulated names will
match the namespace and folder names.
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11. | The
Replication Eligibility page will display whether or not each of the
folder targets are capable of DFS Replication. If all targets are
eligible, click Next to continue.
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12. | On
the Primary Member page, click the Primary Member drop-down list arrow
and select the folder target server that will be used to populate the
remaining member folder targets. The data that exists in the folder of
the primary target member will be replicated to each of the other
targets. After selecting the desired primary server, click Next to
continue.
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13. | On
the Topology Selection page, select the desired replication topology.
For this example, select the Hub and Spoke option button, as shown in Figure 5, and click Next to continue.
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14. | On
the Hub Members page, all servers will initially be listed in the Spoke
Member section. Double-click the desired servers to move them to the
Hub Member section, if they will be used as a hub server. Hub servers
will replicate with all other servers and spoke servers will only
replicate with the hub servers defined on this page. Once all the
necessary hub servers are in the Hub Member section, click Next to
continue.
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15. | On
the Hub and Spoke Connections page, each of the spoke servers will be
listed with their required hub member and an optional hub member.
Optional hub members will only be populated if multiple servers are
selected as hub members in the previous step. Even though the hub
servers are listed as required and optional, the spoke servers will
replicate with both and a connection between each hub server and spoke system will be created. Also, hub servers will replicate with one another as well.
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16. | On
the Replication Group Schedule and Bandwidth page, select the desired
bandwidth limitation if desired or set the hours replication to allowed,
and click Next to continue.
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17. | On the Review Settings and Create Replication Group page, review the selections and if everything looks correct, click Create.
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18. | On
the Confirmation page, if the replication group creation tasks were all
completed successfully, click Close. Otherwise, select the Errors tab
and review and repair the errors, and rerun the Replication Group
Creation Wizard.
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19. | Once
the window is closed, back in the DFS Management console, double-click
on the Replication node to reveal the new replication group and select
it.
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20. | In
the tasks pane, with the new replication group selected in the tree
pane, select the Connections tab to review the connections created from
the previous steps.
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Best Practices for DFS Replication
Following best practices
for DFS Replication can help ensure that replication occurs as expected.
Because file replication is triggered by a file version change or
last-saved or modified time stamp, a standard file share might generate
many replication changes, which can saturate the network bandwidth if no
bandwidth constraints are placed within DFS Replication connections. To
avoid such scenarios, follow as many of these suggestions as possible:
Start with empty
DFS namespace folders and targets to keep from having to replicate any
data at the root level. Also, this can simplify the restore process of a
DFS root folder because it contains only folders that are managed by
DFS.
Do not
replicate data between DFS namespace shares because the namespace shares
will try to replicate the data in the namespace folders as well as the
data contained within the folder targets. Replication is not necessary
if the folder targets are already replicating. Because the roots will
not replicate for redundancy, deploy domain DFS namespaces and add
additional namespace servers.
Back
up at least one DFS folder target and configure the backup to not
update the archive bit. Changing the archive bit might trigger
unnecessary replication.
Thoroughly
test server operating system antivirus programs to ensure that no
adverse effects are caused by the scanning of files on a replicated DFS
target. Also, configure server antivirus to scan at write operations
only and configure clients to scan on read operations to ensure complete
antivirus protection for DFS servers and clients.
Verify
that the drive that will contain the staging folder for a replication
connection contains ample space to accept the amount of replicated data
sent and received by the server.
Having
a high number of read-write operations is not desirable because it
causes heavy replication, and in a scenario like this, DFS Replication
should be performed during off-peak hours unless Windows Server 2008 R2
DFS Replication can be used in conjunction with bandwidth constraints.
Configuring DFS Read-Only Replication
Windows Server 2008 R2 now
allows for a replicated folder to be defined as read-only. This can be
configured once a replication group is defined. As a best practice, when
read-only replicated folders are desired, select the No Topology option
button on the Topology Selection page when running the Replicate Folder
Wizard. Once a replication group is created, select the replication
group in the tree pane, and in the tasks pane select the Memberships
tab. Right-click the desired Replicated Folder member and select Make
Read-only, as shown in Figure 6.
As a best practice, when
using read-only replicated folders, configure replication connections to
be one-way to the read-only folder.
Enabling Access-Based Enumeration on a Domain-Based Namespace in Windows Server 2008 Mode
When a domain-based
namespace is created and Windows 2008 mode is enabled, access-based
enumeration can be enabled, but it is not by default. To enable
access-based enumeration on a domain-based namespace in Windows Server
2008 mode, locate the namespace
in DFS Management. Right-click the namespace and select Properties.
Select the Advanced tab and check the Enable Access-Based Enumeration
for This Namespace check box at the bottom of the window. Click OK to
complete the change. One thing to keep in mind is that this will apply
to the entire namespace and any and all folders and folder targets
defined in the namespace.
