DFS Replication is not limited to folder paths of characters. Replication groups can span across domains within a single forest but not across different forests. The following list provides a set of scalability guidelines that have been tested by Microsoft and apply to Windows Server R2, Windows Server , and Windows Server When creating replication groups with a large number or size of files we recommend exporting a database clone and using pre-seeding techniques to minimize the duration of initial replication.

The following list provides a set of scalability guidelines that have been tested by Microsoft on Windows Server , Windows Server R2, and Windows Server There is no longer a limit to the number of replication groups, replicated folders, connections, or replication group members. Do not use DFS Replication in an environment where multiple users update or modify the same files simultaneously on different servers.

When multiple users need to modify the same files at the same time on different servers, use the file check-out feature of Windows SharePoint Services to ensure that only one user is working on a file. These objects are created when you update the Active Directory Domain Services schema.

For example, on server A, you can connect to a replication group defined in the forest with servers A and B as members. DFS Replication has its own set of monitoring and diagnostics tools. Ultrasound and Sonar are only capable of monitoring FRS. To recover lost files, restore the files from the file system folder or shared folder using File History, the Restore previous versions command in File Explorer, or by restoring the files from backup.

This script is intended only for disaster recovery and is provided AS-IS, without warranty. DFS Management has an in-box diagnostic report for the replication backlog, replication efficiency, and the number of files and folders in a given replication group.

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. Although DFS Replication will work at dial-up speeds, it can get backlogged if there are large numbers of changes to replicate. DFS Replication does not perform bandwidth sensing. You can configure DFS Replication to use a limited amount of bandwidth on a per-connection basis bandwidth throttling.

However, DFS Replication does not further reduce bandwidth utilization if the network interface becomes saturated, and DFS Replication can saturate the link for short periods. As a result, various buffers in lower levels of the network stack including RPC may interfere, causing bursts of network traffic. If you configure bandwidth throttling when specifying the schedule, all connections for that replication group will use that setting for bandwidth throttling.

Bandwidth throttling can be also set as a connection-level setting using DFS Management. In DFS Replication you set the maximum bandwidth you want to use on a connection, and the service maintains that level of network usage. Because this process relies on various buffers in lower levels of the network stack, including RPC, the replication traffic tends to travel in bursts which may at times saturate the network links. Data replicates according to the schedule you set.

For example, you can set the schedule to minute intervals, seven days a week. During these intervals, replication is enabled. Replication starts soon after a file change is detected generally within seconds.

The replication group schedule may be set to Universal Time Coordinate UTC while the connection schedule is set to the local time of the receiving member. Take this into account when the replication group spans multiple time zones. Local time means the time of the member hosting the inbound connection. The displayed schedule of the inbound connection and the corresponding outbound connection reflect time zone differences when the schedule is set to local time.

The disk, memory, and CPU resources used by DFS Replication depend on a number of factors, including the number and size of the files, rate of change, number of replication group members, and number of replicated folders. In addition, some resources are harder to estimate. Applications other than DFS Replication can be hosted on the same server depending on the server configuration. However, when hosting multiple applications or server roles on a single server, it is important that you test this configuration before implementing it in a production environment.

If the connection goes down, DFS Replication will keep trying to replicate while the schedule is open. Remote differential compression RDC is a client-server protocol that can be used to efficiently update files over a limited-bandwidth network.

RDC detects insertions, removals, and rearrangements of data in files, enabling DFS Replication to replicate only the changes when files are updated. RDC is used only for files that are 64 KB or larger by default. RDC is used when the file exceeds a minimum size threshold. This size threshold is 64 KB by default. After a file exceeding that threshold has been replicated, updated versions of the file always use RDC, unless a large portion of the file is changed or RDC is disabled.

To use cross-file RDC, one member of the replication connection must be running an edition of the Windows operating system that supports cross-file RDC.

The following table shows which editions of the Windows operating system support cross-file RDC. Changed portions of files are compressed before being sent for all file types except the following which are already compressed :.

Compression settings for these file types are not configurable in Windows Server R2. You can turn off RDC through the property page of a given connection. Disabling RDC can reduce CPU utilization and replication latency on fast local area network LAN links that have no bandwidth constraints or for replication groups that consist primarily of files smaller than 64 KB.

If you choose to disable RDC on a connection, test the replication efficiency before and after the change to verify that you have improved replication performance. RDC computes differences at the block level irrespective of file data type.

DFS Replication uses RDC, which computes the blocks in the file that have changed and sends only those blocks over the network. DFS Replication does not need to know anything about the contents of the file—only which blocks have changed. However, it is automatically enabled when you upgrade to an edition that supports cross-file RDC, or if a member of the replication connection is running a supported edition.

RDC is a general purpose protocol for compressing file transfer. RDC divides a file into blocks. For each block in a file, it calculates a signature, which is a small number of bytes that can represent the larger block.

The set of signatures is transferred from server to client. The client compares the server signatures to its own. The client then requests the server send only the data for signatures that are not already on the client. DFS Replication renames the file on all other members of the replication group during the next replication. Files are tracked using a unique ID, so renaming a file and moving the file within the replica has no effect on the ability of DFS Replication to replicate a file.

Cross-file RDC uses a heuristic to determine files that are similar to the file that needs to be replicated, and uses blocks of the similar files that are identical to the replicating file to minimize the amount of data transferred over the WAN.

Cross-file RDC can use blocks of up to five similar files in this process. If you need to change the path of a replicated folder, you must delete it in DFS Management and add it back as a new replicated folder. DFS Replication then uses Remote Differential Compression RDC to perform a synchronization that determines whether the data is the same on the sending and receiving members. It does not replicate all the data in the folder again. Changes to these attribute values trigger replication of the attributes.

The contents of the file are not replicated unless the contents change as well. The following attribute values are replicated by DFS Replication, but they do not trigger replication. The following file attribute values also trigger replication, although they cannot be set by using the SetFileAttributes function use the GetFileAttributes function to view the attribute values.

However, the reparse tag and reparse data buffers are not replicated to other servers because the reparse point only works on the local system. You can choose a topology when you create a replication group. Or you can select No topology and manually configure connections after the replication group has been created. Replication groups, replicated folders, and members are illustrated in the following figure.

This figure shows that a replication group is a set of servers, known as members, which participate in the replication of one or more replicated folders. A replicated folder is a folder that stays synchronized on each member. In the figure, there are two replicated folders: Projects and Proposals.

As the data changes in each replicated folder, the changes are replicated across connections between the members of the replication group. The connections between all members form the replication topology. Creating multiple replicated folders in a single replication group simplifies the process of deploying replicated folders because the topology, schedule, and bandwidth throttling for the replication group are applied to each replicated folder.

To deploy additional replicated folders, you can use Dfsradmin. Each replicated folder has unique settings, such as file and subfolder filters, so that you can filter out different files and subfolders for each replicated folder. The replicated folders stored on each member can be located on different volumes in the member, and the replicated folders do not need to be shared folders or part of a namespace.

However, the DFS Management snap-in makes it easy to share replicated folders and optionally publish them in an existing namespace. Using DFS Replication on a virtual machine in Azure has been tested with Windows Server; however, there are some limitations and requirements that you must follow.

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