Why Replicate File Shares?
If your company has a headquarters in New York and a branch office in London, forcing the London employees to open large CAD files over the WAN link to the New York file server will result in terrible performance. Distributed File System Replication (DFSR) solves this. It automatically synchronizes the contents of a folder between two or more Windows Servers over the WAN. London users open the files locally at LAN speeds, and any changes they make are instantly replicated back to the New York server in the background using highly efficient differential compression.
Step 1: Install the DFSR Role on Both Servers
You must install the DFSR role on every Windows Server that will participate in the replication group.
Open Server Manager on both servers, launch the Add roles and features wizard, and expand File and Storage Services > File and iSCSI Services. Check the box for DFS Replication and complete the installation.
Step 2: Create the Replication Group
Log in to one of the servers (e.g., your primary server in New York). Open the DFS Management console from the Administrative Tools menu.
In the left pane, right-click the Replication folder and select New Replication Group….
Select Multipurpose replication group. Name the group (e.g., “HQ-to-Branch-Sync”) and click Next.
Step 3: Add the Member Servers
The wizard will ask you to add the servers that will participate in the group. Click Add… and search for both your New York server (e.g., FS-NY-01) and your London server (e.g., FS-LON-01). Click Next.
Step 4: Configure the Topology and Schedule
For a standard two-server setup, select the Full mesh topology. This ensures that changes made on either server will synchronize to the other.
Next, you must configure the replication schedule and bandwidth. If you have a slow WAN link, you can select “Replicate during the specified days and times” and throttle the bandwidth during business hours to prevent DFSR from saturating your internet connection. For a fast connection, select “Replicate continuously using the specified bandwidth (Full)”.
Step 5: Define the Primary Member and Folders
You must designate a Primary member. This is critical for the initial synchronization: if there is a conflict between the files currently on the two servers, the Primary member’s files will overwrite the secondary member’s files. Select your New York server as the primary.
Next, click Add… to specify the exact local folder on the New York server you want to replicate (e.g., D:\SharedData).
On the final screen, you must define where that folder will live on the London server. Double-click the London server in the list, select Enable, and browse to the local path on the London server (e.g., E:\ReplicatedData).
Click Finish to create the group. Active Directory will replicate the new configuration, and within a few minutes, the DFSR service will begin hashing and transferring files across the WAN!