I'm Oscar Mas and I want to show you how a DFS replication would be carried out (DFS-R), which replicates the data between two servers and one of them will be responsible for managing user access to resources. These types of systems are ideal for replicating the data of our XenDesktop users.

It should be noted that DFS uses a compression algorithm called "remote differential compression", better known as DRC. RDC detects changes made to a file and replicates only changes made to that document. That means that if we have a 500GB Word file, when modified it will only replicate a few bits..

The operation is this lab, is as follows:

Users access a share called Programs, which has been shared using a DFS-N resource and accessed using the FQDN: \ilba.catPrograms. The data is located locally in the P folder:Server programs they access (dc.ilba.cat). The data in this folder, are replicated against the server srvdc1.ilba.cat, which locates the replicated data in folder H:Replicacion_SRVDC1

Microsoft has a great deal of documentation of the possible scenarios in which the DFS-R system can be applied : http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2010/09/01/microsoft-s-support-statement-around-replicated-user-profile-data.aspx. As indicated in the documentation, DFS-R system is workable for use with profiles (Profiles) and folder redirection (Folder Redirection) of our XenDesktop system

It is important and vital to note that the DFS-R system, it is not supported to implement it in the Domain Controllers, since this system is the same one that Microsoft uses to replicate the changes of our Active Directory, which are located in the SYSVOL folder between the different Domain Comtrollers in our network.

It should be noted that the first versions of Windows that introduced Active Directory (Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003) used another replication system called File Replication Service (FRS) to replicate our SYSVOL. This was changed and later the system that we now know as DFS began to be used. To see if our system uses FRS or DFS, we will be able to see it in our ADUC.

The roles that have been installed, have been those of DFS-N (DFS Namespace) and DFS-R (DFS Replication) on the server called dc.ilba.cat, on the server that will perform the replication functions: srvdc1.ilba.cat, only the DFS-R system has been installed, but it would not be a bad idea to also install the DFS-N role.

The idea is to replicate the folder: Programmes, as seen in the following screenshot against a folder located on another server (srvdc1.ilba.cat).

The whole procedure, was made on the dc.ilba.cat server. Remember to create the relevant folders on the different servers, since the Wizard will ask us for these folders. Although from the Wizard, gives us the possibility to create them. The first thing we will do is create a new replication group.

In my case I have chosen the option of "Multiserver replication group"

I have given you a descriptive name for the replication group name and we need to verify that the domain name is correct.

We will add our two servers that will perform the replication functionalities: dc.ilba.cat and srvdc1.ilba.cat.

We'll tell you the topology we want to use for replication implementation.

This part is one of the most interesting parts, since here we can choose the bandwidth that the replication will use or the time range in which the data will be replicated.

We'll tell you which computer is the primary server.

And the folder that we're going to replicate from the primary server.

We'll tell you the path where the data will be replicated to our second server.

And we'll have finished the setup!

I hope it has been helpful to you!