Import of sync share configuration for work folders takes a very long time

Question

Hey all,

I had a migration today that did not work out as planned. We were trying to migrate/upgrade from a Windows Server 2012 R2 fileserver to a Windwos Server 2019. We are using the Work Folders feature.

• We prepared a new machine with Windows Server 2019 and installed a necessary features
• Then we exported the config from the old server (Get-SyncShare | Export-Clixml -path c:\WFconfig.xml)
• We moved all disks to the new server with identical drive letters
• We edited the WFconfig.xml to fit the name of the new server (<S N="ServerName">)
• Then we tried to import the config file (Import-CliXML –Path c:\WFconfig.xml | New-SyncShare)

The import took longer than half an hour without any response. So I finally had to cancel it (CTRL C) and move disks back to my old system, because I did not have such a big window for downtime. We have about 2000 sync shares and 25 TB of data in that shares.

Would you expect the import of the config to take so long? On an almost empty testsystem it worked in an instant.
What happens in the background while importing the config?
Are there any environmental conditions that have an effect on sync shares when importing? We are also using dedup, quotas, and smb-shares.

Thank you for your help

Florian

Answer 1

Hi Florian,

Thanks for posting in Q&A platform.

May I know if there is any error message occurred when you cannot import of the config?

If the issue is also related to PowerShell, I would suggest you refer to experts from the following forum to get professional support：

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/topics/windows-server-powershell.html

Best Regards,
Sunny

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Answer 2

Hi Sunny,

no, there is no error message or progress bar.

I don't even know, if I actually cannot import the config. It is just that I cannot plan a migration, when I don't how long the import may take and if it is successfull in the end. I gave it half an hour the last time before I cancelled it. Maybe it would have been successfull after an hour or 4 hours or it would have finished with an error message. Who knows.

The last option would be to build a testsytem that really has the same size as our production system. I would like to avoid it, because it would cost a lot of ressources and load on my backup system. In an alomst empty testsystem it worked in an instant, as I said.

I don't think it is a powershell issue. I was hoping for someone with experience in migrating Work Folders from server to server.

Florian

Answer 3

Hi Florian,

Thank you very much for your feedback.

If there is no error message and due to the environmental limitation, it's hard for us to reproduce and analyze this issue from Q&A platform support level. To investigate further, we need to collect traces on both server.

If your issue is urgent, I would suggest you open a case with Microsoft where more in-depth investigation can be done so that you would get a more satisfying explanation and solution to this issue.

Also, in this way ,they can have a clear picture about your issue and your environment by phone communication and live share session.

You may find phone number for your region accordingly from the link below:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/gp/customer-service-phone-numbers

Best Regards,
Sunny

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Answer 4

Hi Sunny,

I have opened a ticket with Microsoft and will post our results.

Thank You.

Florian