Non-UO: Windows DFS Replication

[Wulf2k]

Anybody familiar with this?

Replication keeps crapping our about 25% of the way through a 130GB replication, and never completes.

Works fine for the smaller jobs, and it's not exceeding the replication staging area limit.

 

[Shamus Turlough]

How many servers are in the DFS set, and are they both the same OS and patch level? Are either of them domain controllers? ICQ me at 276182740 and I should be able to help.

 

[Wulf2k]

One's Win2K SP4, one's a domain controller running 2003. Can't recall the SP off-hand.

The 2K machine holds the roaming profiles, and is getting past its "best before" date. It was originally a stand-alone share, but I'm wanting to get it set up with DFS so that we can get the 2K server out of there.

Is there any good way of actually monitoring what DFS is doing? As it is, I make a change, then wait at least a half hour to see if anything's taken effect.

 

[Skylark SP]

Is there any good way of actually monitoring what DFS is doing? As it is, I make a change, then wait at least a half hour to see if anything's taken effect.

I have no production experience with DFS, just lab/classroom so I can't be much help.

I often find Microsoft Technet to be a good resource. Here is an article that may be of help to you until you can chat with Shamus realtime. There is a section that covers built-in tools for checking the replication status. Specifically:

Is there a way to know the state of replication?

Yes. There are a number of ways to monitor replication:

• DFS Replication has a management pack for MOM 2005 that provides proactive monitoring.
• DFS Replication has an in-box diagnostic report for the replication backlog, replication efficiency, and the number of files and folders in a given replication group.
• Dfsrdiag.exe is a command-line tool that can generate a backlog count or trigger a propagation test. Both show the state of replication. Propagation shows you if files are being replicated to all nodes. Backlog shows you how many files still need to replicate before two computers are in sync. The backlog count is the number of updates that a replication group member has not processed.
• Scripts can use WMI to collect backlog information—manually or through MOM.

Mark Minasi's newsletter (minasi.com), and forums are also a good resource for practical, real-world Windows admin procedures. I've bought some of his books in the past.

-Skylark

 

[Shamus Turlough]

Just for the record, we did talk a long time about this, and Wulf actually ended up finding out why it was stalling. The problem was with DFS trying to synchronize an open file on its initial copy.

@Skylark: We did look at some technet articles, but since this is old school DFS and not DFSr there are not very many resources available from technet.

Cheers! And I'm glad this was able to be solved.

 

[Wulf2k]

The problem was with DFS trying to synchronize an open file on its initial copy.

Well, that was the final problem. I wouldn't say it was the only problem.

But thanks for the help.