Migrate DFS Domain System Volume Replication to new DFS Server

Question

I have an existing SYSVOL-type replication group hosted by a 2012 domain controller running DFS. It is replicating SYSVOL between our 5 2012 domain controllers. There are no DFS namespaces or other replication groups configured on DFS service, only this SYSVOL replication group.

In migrating our domain controllers to new 2022 servers, I need to move this replication group to a new DFS server (preferably not another domain controller if possible). All I can find is information to convert from SYSVOL replication to DFS replication, but that's not what I need, I need to migrate the DFS replication. And since these are our domain controllers, I want to ensure we are doing it properly and safely!

Any information/steps about this process would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

Also, as I deploy the new 2022 domain controllers, will they automatically join this replication group?

Answer 1

Correct - all you have to do is deploy a new domain controller in the same domain.

SYSVOL and the corresponding replication group have to be hosted by AD DS domain controllers - but all that functionality is built into the OS/AD platform.

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hth

Marcin

Answer 2

Hi Scott,

if you have 5 domain controllers with the Windows Server 2012 operating system, you'll first need to upgrade the replication method from FRS to DFSR (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/dfs-replication/migrate-sysvol-to-dfsr)

After that, your job is pretty much simple. Promote a new domain controller with the 2022 Operating system, which'll automatically be added to the SYSVOL replication group.

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Best regards,

JJ

Answer 3

Hello Scott Fenstermacher,
Thank you for posting in Q&A forum.

Also, as I deploy the new 2022 domain controllers, will they automatically join this replication group?

A: Yes, if your existing AD environment is healthy, the new 2022 domain controller will automatically have this replication group.

Before you join the new 2022 Server to the domain and promote it as Domain Controller, or before we do any changes to our AD environment, we had better to check our AD environment health. So, we can try the following steps:

1.We need to check if all the DCs works fine, we can run Dcdiag /v on each DC to check. 2.Run Repadmin /showrepl and repadmin /replsum and repadmin /showrepl * /csv >c:\repsum.csv on PDC in the root domain to check AD replication status if you have multiple DCs in your domain.

3.Check SYSVOL replication is working fine.

Please ensure the forest and domain functional level is 2008 or higher.

I hope the information above is helpful.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,

Daisy Zhou

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