Bandwith would not be much of an issue once you have this setup properly. Yes, once you have selected the primary share it would replicate to the other servers/sites. But once that is done, any manipulation done to a file, say an Excel spreadsheet, would only be replicated to the other servers. This is done every 15 minutes. And to my understanding, this time can be changed.
If you can upgrade the servers to Windows 2003 Server R2, This does a very adequate job of DFS-R. A lot easier done than in Windows 2000, as someone has mentioned earlier. I think, and someone correct me if I am wrong, but in Windows 2000 you were only allowed to create one reference point. In Windows 2003 R2 it allows you, now, to create multiple reference points. So, if you want to create a share in AD just for your Users Folders, you can, plus any other reference points as needed. Just remember, Once all files have been replicated, at the beginning, DFS-R only replicates files that have been modified. If you have a T1 between each site, that would suffice to handle the replication. Scenario: Say user John Doe is at Site A. He logs in and accesses some Word and Excel Files in his User Folder. If you have DFS-R setup properly, AD would then check to see which server is closer to him, through DFS-R, and then point to Server A at Site A for John Doe to access those files. Now, lets say that John Doe needs to go to Site C. When he gets there DFS-R would have already replicated those files that he has manipulated, not the entire directory. The entire directory was replicated at the beginning when you setup DFS-R. So, when John Doe logs in, AD and DFS-R checks to 'see' which of the shares is closest to John Doe. In this case, it is Server C. John Doe is none the wiser as he thinks he is accessing his User Folder. And that is all he cares about. Now, let's say that John Doe is at Site C but Server C is down and offline. When John Doe logs in he should be authenticated by the PDC, which is Site/Server A. But what about his User Folder. No problem. AD and DFS-R will then point to the closest server, which is Site/Server A in this case, and John Doe has access to his files. John Doe doesn't even have to re-map to his User Folder. When Server C comes back online DFS-R will see those manipulated files in Server A and then replicate those files back to the share on Server C as well as to any other share that is setup in DFS-R. Backups: You don't necessarily have to backup all User Folders on all Servers. Since there is a Primary Share, you would only need to Backup that folder, as it is the folder that DFS-R users as a reference point for all files. If a user deletes a file and then needs it back, you only need to restore it on the Primary Share. It will then be replicated to the other servers. On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 2:42 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Sean Martin <[email protected]> wrote on 08/28/2009 01:21:19 PM: > > > DFS would probably work if you used it in conjunction with DFS-R. > > The questions are this > > > > 1) Do you want to host ALL of your user profiles on all servers? > > No. Because then I would need hundreds of gigabytes of storage at each > site, so that each site has a copy of all user profiles. > > I have about 1,000 users. Right now, my "main" fileserver has something on > the order of 900G of user storage alone. If I add in the other 4 servers, > I'm looking at a couple terrabytes of space, at each site, just for user > folders .. > > Yes, I know - in spite of policy against it, I know they've got many, many > music files, etc, that they shouldn't have. I also need to clean that up. > Even after I do, I'll still have multiple hundreds of gigs of valid files. > > > 2) Is it possible to upgade to Windows 2003 R2, to take advantage of > DFS-R? > > That part I can do/mostly have done. > > > In a typical roaming profile environment, DFS should be a fairly > > decent solution. We found that in a terminal service/Citrix > > environment, especially with multiple application silos, DFS and > > DFS-R was a pain and ultimately unsupported. > > We don't use roaming profiles, no. And we're not a terminal server/Citrix > environment. > > > If using DFS-R/FRS, you wouldn't have to worry about > > backup/restores, as the data would be replicated for you. Again, > > this would require hosting all user profiles on all of your servers > > to maintain continuity. > > Yeah, and that's the part I don't see happening, due to the storage and > the huge bandwidth issues (those huundreds of gigs have to fully > replicate, at least at first. After that, I'm sure it's manageable use of > bandwidth, to replicate changes). > > > Clients will connect to the DFS server within their site. You could > > implement some type of redundancy/load balancing as well by adding > > multiple servers to your Folder Targets. You can control which > > servers clients connect to using referral ordering. > > Hmmm ... > > > Again, I don't have much experiencing using FRS, but from my > > experience with DFS-R and from what I've read about the > > improvements, it would be worth researching whether upgrading to > > Windows 2003 R2 would be feasible. > > Thanks! > > > > > - Sean > > On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 8:21 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > Daniel Rodriguez <[email protected]> wrote on 08/28/2009 12:01:52 PM: > > > > > And you are not using DFS beecause? This would help you tremendously. > > > Don't know enough about to implement. I know the general theory of it > > (it's pretty equivalent to a mount point in Unix/Linux, I believe). How > > would it help me, tho? > > > > Would I specify the profile location as "\\DFS\Users\username1", and > then > > - as long as something mounted into DFS has a path "\Users\username1", > > offline folders would be happy? And then I'd only have to worry about > > doing the backup/restore from one physical server to the other? > > > > > On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 11:56 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I have 5 sites that have file servers in them. We assign a user's home > > > profile in AD (home folder) to be the server closest to them, for > > > performance sake. We also use folder re-direction via GPO, as well as > > > offline files (sometimes, the WAN connections can hiccup, and we lose > > > connectivity). A mostly standard (or not unknown) configuration, > right? > > > > > > Here's my problem/aggravation: > > > > > > I have people move from site to site all the time. Their computer goes > > > with them. Rather than have them access all their files over a WAN > link, > > > we want them to access them locally, for performance reasons. > > > > > > This means I have to synchronize their re-directed folders; backup > their > > > files at the old fileserver; restore to the new fileserver; delete > their > > > offline files cache (else it will continue to synchronize to their old > > > fileserver); and change their profile setting in AD. Unfortunately, I > > > can't schedule the time of their move, so I end up hearing about it > > after > > > they've moved into their new site. So I either have to interrupt their > > day > > > and stop their computer usage (while the backup/restore is taking > > place), > > > or try and doing it in the evening, remotely, on my time from home. > This > > > is - of course - further complicated by the fact that I have to > > coordinate > > > with the user's schedule for daytime work, etc. > > > > > > I know that a good chunk of my problem is not technical, it's the fact > > > that I can't do the backup and delete offline cache as the last step > > > before the user moves, so that by the time they are all set up at > their > > > new site, everything is ready to go (in terms of cleared offline > folders > > > cache, and new entry in profile setting in AD, and restore done to new > > > server). But since I (apparently) can't change this process, I'm > looking > > > for some advice on ways to make my life easier. > > > > > > Any advice? (from a technical standpoint, I mean) Better way to do > this? > > I > > > don't think something like DFS would help, but I've never used it, so > > I'm > > > not sure. Something I am not yet aware of? > > > > > > Details: > > > Win2000 AD > > > Clients are either Win2000 or WinXP Pro > > > Backup software is EMC NetWorker > > > WAN links are Verizon TLS (Transparent LAN Service) - effectively > > > speaking, we use a VLAN on Verizons fiber LAN. It is pretty reliable. > > > > > > Thanks > > > > > > -- > > > Michael Leone > > > Network Administrator, ISM > > > Philadelphia Housing Authority > > > 2500 Jackson St > > > Philadelphia, PA 19145 > > > Tel: 215-684-4180 > > > Cell: 215-252-0143 > > > <mailto:[email protected]> > > > > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > > > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > > > > > > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
