DFS replication between Windows Sever 2003 R2 & SBS

[VanBC]

Hello,

We have a Windows Sever 2003 R2 Standard Edition SP2(hostname is Mars) running on Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @2.4GHz and a Windows Sever 2003 for Small Business Server SP2(hostname is Doublehelix) running on Dual Core AMD Opteron Processor 270 @ 2.01GHz. They are on the same sub-network but in different locations and domains(lakescom.net & blcomfor.local). Doublehelix has most of our important data, applications and MSSQL services only.

A fault tolerance/disaster recovery solution is necessary for us. If Doublehelix goes down, users can still access data and run programs on Mars.

First, we created DFS roots and linked them to share folders on both servers, and then tried DFS replication group for data collection on Mars but failed. The error said “Doublehelix.lakescom.net: the service control manager cannot be opened. Access is denied”. We are not sure if the reason is, that not all new functionality (snap in's) are showing after doublehelix upgraded to SBS R2, specifically the DFS management console.

What would cause this problem?

In our case, is the DFS replication possible and enough for us?
If so, how can we implement it?
Does one domain have to be removed?
Do we need to upgrade one or both servers? If so, which edition (2003
Enterprise/2008)?
Is Severs-Cluster or High-Availability system applicable and necessary?
Any other solution available?

[Zachary]

I don’t think there is any sense having two domains. As in your case I would have start by losing the Mars domain, and moving that server into the SBS domain. If you want to do this you try setting up DFS, and see if it does what you need.

[VanBC]

Hi Miles & Steve,

We do have RAID on our SBS, but can't tolerate more than 1/2 hour downtime to replace mother board, inside power supply, etc.

Can I reset the R2 server as the 2nd DC in the SBS domain and do one way DFS replication(SBS->R2).

Thanks for your help

[Javalr]

I don’t think DFS works fine in situation where there is heavy editing of the files that live in the DFS share.

[shivinder]

Hey guys, if I am not wrong the very first is that DFS replication (DFS-R) doesn’t work in SBS 2003 R2. But still if you really need it, you can set up DFS with the FRS for the replication between SBS 2003 server and Windows Server 2003. You can get more info about the same in these articles:

Monitoring and Troubleshooting the File Replication Service: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...tshootfrs.mspx

Distributed File System Technology Center: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...s/default.mspx

[amsree]

acccendently i delete dfs from ad how can i take back the dfs