Hi chaps.

I'm sure one of you can answer this.

I understand that folders such as netlogon, etc, in an active directory are synchronised between domain controllers.

I have a largish repository of files which I'd like to do the same so that they remain available should I need to reboot one of the domain controllers (have 2 running).

Looking at the properties of netlogon shows a third tab which refers to DFS.

But when you look at configuring DFS in the DFS GUI, it's a completely different interface, and the netlogon folders and such are not listed. I guess this is done to ensure that someone in DFS GUI cannot remove netlogon and break a domain.

However, bearing in mind my need of having around 50GB of data available, either I put them in the netlogon folder which was my initial idea, or set up a proper DFS domain root. I guess the latter is better as you can manage it and does not pose potential security and bad practice.

Thoughts?

TIA

Proper DFS! Is the data planned to change much?

Won't change much at all. More of a storage for installers, and not word documents and personal data which changes constantly.

I gather the replication at first can take time and you can't seem to force a "replicate NOW!", but apart from that, left it a couple of hours and the content starting appearing in the other server.

I just found it odd that the netlogon is synchronised by DFS, or so the text on the tab suggests. It just makes noobs to DFS like me think something's wrong

Cheers. I'll stick to "proper" DFS - until someone says install some other kind of replicating file system :P

I thought Netlogon was hosted by FRS? :confused:

What version of windows are you using?

A DFS root would be the best solution.. if you are using server 2003 R2, the DFS is MUCH improved and efficent.. (the normal 2k3 version can only replicate entire files, R2 can do byte level delta replication) and its easier to manage and control in R2

My last company used DFS in R2 extensively to provide resiliance and backups for fileshares hosted across three sites. it was very handy because its AD site-aware, so laptop users could plug in at any site and always have access to the files locally on the site.

Using W2k3 R2 SP2

Found the discrepancy between netlogon and the other stuff: I wasn't looking in the same place.

On the local machine, say you have C:\Shared as a shared folder, once you add this to the DFS, it appears in DFS. But you only get the DFS tab in the properties under the domain listing of the shared folder.

i.e. go to C:\ right click on the "Shared" directory, go to properties, you only get the sharing + file perms tab. However, once set up in DFS, go to the domain level, i.e. \\domain.local\Shared and the properties of that show the DFS stuff

Nice to know it's delta level replication. I noticed the file replication service folder appear as a hidden folder in the root of C: on both domain controllers now they'be been configured to DFS share and replicate the "Shared" folder

Using W2k3 R2 SP2

Found the discrepancy between netlogon and the other stuff: I wasn't looking in the same place.

On the local machine, say you have C:\Shared as a shared folder, once you add this to the DFS, it appears in DFS. But you only get the DFS tab in the properties under the domain listing of the shared folder.

i.e. go to C:\ right click on the "Shared" directory, go to properties, you only get the sharing + file perms tab. However, once set up in DFS, go to the domain level, i.e. \\domain.local\Shared and the properties of that show the DFS stuff

Nice to know it's delta level replication. I noticed the file replication service folder appear as a hidden folder in the root of C: on both domain controllers now they'be been configured to DFS share and replicate the "Shared" folder

Yeah, you should have no problems with DFS on R2 then.. it can also do notifications and reports for anything it has problems replicating. you could also select one branch as being "primary" and the other as a failover, or have them as a kinda NLB share.

Colin, you're right, Netlogon is replicated by the FRS. It's not the same thing as DFS, as I found out on MS's website here: Distributed File System Replication: Frequently Asked Questions

So WHY THE FU** do MS show the netlogon share as a DFS share at the domain level

No wonder I'm frikkin confused if you're given the wrong frikkin info! :rant:

Now, I've managed to completely break it. Because I've now deleted my DFS share (removed the root), however, it's still shown in the domain share thingy \\domain.local\ because I originally did tick the publich in AD box.

I then recreated it, but of course, it doesn't work because the link in AD points to a non-existant DFS share which has been removed and the new one - which has the same name - is kida of clashing. If I right click on it and go to properties, no window pops up :thumbdwn:

Rant over

Check this article out and the others on the subject

Thanks Col

It's starting to make sense. Reading through that article showed the DFS Management console which I didn't have. Then it looked like an addon which I needed to install :eek: So done that and will press on.

I think that my initial "replication" wasn't DFS replication perse, it was normal FRS under DFS which is why I saw FRS directories appear, but the actual replication didn't work.

It's all very confusing and MS are pants at explaining the technology. But no surprise there

I thought Netlogon was hosted by FRS? :confused:

It is

DFS proper as others are suggested is the way to go, obviously AD is in place so an enterprise DFS and a second root replica should sort it

Finally managed to get it working.

But it wans't an easy task. When I removed the initial DFS/FRS namespace / replication thing which wasn't working, everything appeared to be OK.

Then installed the proper DFS-R (DFS Replication service which is neither FRS nor DFS with FRS from what I can understand!). Created the namespace again, created the replicaton stuff with the fancy wizards, and all looked OK except that nothing was being replicated. Looking at the event viewer showed an error event ID 6402. Essentially, it couldn't do a DFS-R replication because there was still a record of FRS - although it had been deleted and was nowhere to be seen.

Fortunately, google was my friend for once and found a post of someone with a similar problem. Turned out that although no entry was visible in the DFS console, it was still there, and loading up the ADSI console, managed to dig into the AD tree and remove the container names referring to the deleted FRS bit.

Once that was all done, it finally started working.

What a pallava though - just shows how migrating from one technology to another is never simple with MS. The link you showed Colin just emphasised it - MS decided to change all the terminology between versions :crazy: That's MS for you I guess

It is

DFS proper as others are suggested is the way to go, obviously AD is in place so an enterprise DFS and a second root replica should sort it

Wooo.. not often i get stuff right :thumbup:

Question Xav....

What do you actually do for a job??.. you seem to get involved in allsorts of things.... i thought you were a studio engineer :confused:

LOL Col.

Originally, was a "broadcast engineer". So designing and building TV stations and the like - everything from Studios (installing cameras, vision mixing desks, audio consoles, talkback systems) to transmissions systems with archive and media asset management in between

As the IT world is taking over, it's becoming more and more network / Linux / Hard drive storage / Windows / Domain centric.

The current one I'm working on has had a steep and very broad learning curve and has been tricky at times, but learning a lot

Our current system has 4 Catalyst 6500 chassis with IP and multicast routing, 3 firewalls, about 3 or 4 other edge switches, gigabit ethernet over copper, over fibre and 10GbE over monomode fibre links. Then there's about 60 servers, all talking together, a whopping great central storage made available over a SAN with multiple fibre channel switches. Video is streamed from big storage, through SAN onto NAS then onto clients, all 30 of them accessing it at the same time. Then you have a load of video being recorded at 50Mbit/s

Piece of pish really

Can tell you more, but then either you'd have to pay me or I'd have to kill you

LOL Col.

Originally, was a "broadcast engineer". So designing and building TV stations and the like - everything from Studios (installing cameras, vision mixing desks, audio consoles, talkback systems) to transmissions systems with archive and media asset management in between

As the IT world is taking over, it's becoming more and more network / Linux / Hard drive storage / Windows / Domain centric.

The current one I'm working on has had a steep and very broad learning curve and has been tricky at times, but learning a lot

Our current system has 4 Catalyst 6500 chassis with IP and multicast routing, 3 firewalls, about 3 or 4 other edge switches, gigabit ethernet over copper, over fibre and 10GbE over monomode fibre links. Then there's about 60 servers, all talking together, a whopping great central storage made available over a SAN with multiple fibre channel switches. Video is streamed from big storage, through SAN onto NAS then onto clients, all 30 of them accessing it at the same time. Then you have a load of video being recorded at 50Mbit/s

Piece of pish really

Can tell you more, but then either you'd have to pay me or I'd have to kill you

Just like my setup for watching HD pr0n then