DFS Replication allows for multi-master replication of files located on windows servers. Multi-master is a term we generally frequently in the AD world, but simply means that changes can happen on any server in the replication group, and those changes will replicate to its partners. One important note: DFS-Namespace and DFS-Replication technologies are mutual exclusive and does not require the other to be configured first, but at Dell we do generally see them used together.
Setup:
2 DC’s – DC01 (192.168.1.10) and DC02 (192.168.1.11) are domain controllers for the matrix.local domain and are in the Default-First-Site-Name
2 File Servers –
FS01.matrix.local
FS02.matrix.local
Once all the good times of setting IP Addresses, renaming, and joining the domain we are now ready to setup FS01.
The environment is not very complicated: 2 domain controllers and 2 file servers. That said, I needed to generate some test data in order to be have some data to replicate which we’ll do next. I embedded the actual script used to create this data.
Word of warning: some really basic code ahead:
Set objFSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”) strStartPath = “C:\Data\CorpData”
strFileName = “Sample” strExt = “.txt”
Set objFolder = objFSO.CreateFolder(strStartPath) for i = 0 to 200 strNewFolder = strStartPath & “\Folder” & i Set objFolder = objFSO.CreateFolder(strNewFolder) for j = 0 to 200 strSubFolder = strNewFolder & “\Subfolder” & i & “-” & j Set objFolder = objFSO.CreateFolder(strSubFolder) for k = 0 to 200 Set objFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(strSubFolder & “\” & strFileName & i & “-” & j & “-” & k & strExt) next next Set objFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(strNewFolder & “\” & strFileName & i & strExt) next msgbox “Done”
So that’s all fancy but what does it do? Well first thing is that its vbscript; I am an old vb guy so when I want to whip out some quick code this is what I resort too. Sure you could do this in PowerShell, and given enough time I may eventually do that. Don’t beat me up too much on it. Here are the steps of the script in plain English
Create a folder called c:\Data\CorpData
Then create 201 subfolders called Folder(#) in my case 0 to 200
Then in the sub folder create 201 more folders called SubFolder(#)
In each subfolder create 201 empty files named Sample-Folder#-Subfolder#-File#.txt
Rinse and repeat steps 2-4 for 200 times while creating a file under the original Folder(#)
I know that’s a lot of overkill but since the files are all 0kb and the folders are 0 kb it allows me to create a lot of files and folders really quickly (about 5 to 10 minutes) – this little script creates the following for files and folders: Yes that says 8 million files in 40,602 folders with a 0kb size. While this is not likely what you will see in production, it will allow us to move on to the next step. If your are testing this as well and do not want that many then you could change all the 200’s to 20 in the above script and that would make a lot less files and folders, thus making the whole process quicker.
I went ahead and set the corpdata as a share called corpdata – because of all the files and folders this took a really long time – mental note to self “create the share first”.
For users to access at this point they would go to \\fs01.matrix.local\corpdatawhich looks like
Next we’ll install the DFS features.,
Step 1: Install the DFS Namespace, DFS Replication, and DFS Management tools
In Server Manager, Click Manage and select Add Roles and Features – This will bring up the Add Roles and Features Wizard
Note: As soon as you click one of the 2 roles a popup will open prompting to install the DFS Management Tools – Click Add Features
Step 2: Create the Namespace “Data”
While I am not going through all the steps that have been done to get the namespace up and running, for specific steps please see this blog posting here
In the above picture we have a domain based namespace called Matrix.local\Corp with a folder named Data. The Data folder has a target of \\fs01.matrix.local\CorpData
Data can be accessed either via directly from the server or namespace
Step 3: Prepare FS02
So time passes and the Matrix powers that be decide that the corporate data needs to be duplicated to FS02. Usually this is to allow either users faster access to the data when located at another site, data redundancy, or as a disaster recovery scenario. Windows 2012 R2 has many enhancements that allow for replication to be faster and much more efficient over previous versions.
While it would be easy to go through the Add Roles and Feature wizard again for FS02, where would the fun be in that? We will configure FS02 with PowerShell.
That command is “Install-WindowsFeature FS-DFS-Namespace, FS-DFS-Replication, RSAT-DFS-Mgmt-Con”
That was much quicker and easier to install than using Server Manager.
Step 4: Create the CorpData share on FS02
The path locally for FS02 will be C:\Data\CorpData
Run the command New-Item C:\Data –Type directory
Run the command New-Item C:\Data\CorpData –Type directory
Open windows explorer and validate the ntfs permissions for the above folders match the FS01 server
This is necessary to keep the permissions consistent – mismatched permissions is a common issue we see in Dell support when DFS replication is used. It is also easier/quicker to set permissions before there is actual data in the folder. Check both folders.
Go ahead and create the share using the same permissions as FS01
Browse to the folder to validate that the share is accessible – there won’t be any data – we will do that next
Robocopy \\fs01\corpdata C:\Data\CorpData /e /b /copyall /r:3 /w:1 /MT:64 /XD DfsrPrivate /tee /log:c:\robo.log /v We will run that from FS02.
This will take a while to run – after all, there is 8 million files to copy.
Once complete, validate the copy status – in my test environment there will be no failures because nobody is really accessing the data and it is all text files. In the real world there may be failures, but there is no harm in running the Robocopy command several times. After the initial copy subsequent runs will be quicker because only changed files or new files will be copied. Robocopy gives a pretty good report when the copy is done.
One step that you will want to do is to check the file hash, on 8 million files would be a really tough task to accomplish so I am going to spot check a file or 2 to validate the copy’s file hash matches the FS01 file. Using the Get-DfsrFileHash PowerShell command to get the hash from the source and destination server to visually validate.
Now we are getting down to actually creating the replication group. Using the DFS Management Interface is easy enough but will not allow for cloning the Replication database because you have to add both members at the time of the creation of the replication group. The reason we want to clone is that with the 8.1 million files initial synchronization will take a really long time while the servers compare and exchange metadata and files. So we will create the replication group on FS01.
Create the Replication Group by running this command
Create the replicated folder by running this command
Add FS01 as a member of the replication group
Set the DFSR membership properties including the path of the folder to be replicated
Refresh the DFS Management console and the new replication group and replicated folder will be there
Now I am updating the config from AD by running the PowerShell command Update-DfsrConfigurationFromAD
Before we go to step 7, we need to wait for event 4112 in the DFS Replication log. That event will let us know that we are done and ready to export the DFS Replication database.
Step 7: Export a clone of the Database
First we will need a place to store the clone, so we will create a new folder
Running the following command will export the database:
When the export completes, a message similar to this will be displayed
Step 8: Copy the Clone to FS02
Running Robocopy with the command Robocopy C:\Data\DFSRClone \\FS02\C$\Data\DFSRClone /B
Step 9: Import the Clone
On FS02 run the following command to import the clone from FS01
This will take a bit as the Export was 3.3 GB. Either wait for the command to complete, or check the DFS Replication event log for Event 2404 which indicates the import is completed.
Event ID 2416 in the same log will give you status update information while the import is going on, usually about 4 events a minute.
Step 10: Add FS02 to the Replication Group
In PowerShell on FS02 Run the following 3 commands
Wait for event 4104 in the DFS Replication log to know when this has been completed
Step 11: Test Replication
Ok now that DFSR is setup let’s validate that everything is working as expected.
In DFS Management, Select the Replication group on the left pane and Select Create Diagnostic Report in the Action Pane.
On the Diagnostic Report Wizard Select Propagation Report
Click Next
On the next screen select the server and folder then click next
On the Next page Click Create
View the results then Close the wizard.
Give some time to pass, a couple minutes or so, then rerun Diagnostic Report Wizard – This time select the propagation report.
Go through the wizard and view the results. A health report is also a good way to monitor health of the replication group.
Additional tests to perform
Test 1: Open one of the text files and modify the contents, validate that change replicates to the other server.
Test 2: The final test would be to create a new folder and a new file in that folder, allow some time to pass then check the other server and validate the data has replicated.
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