DFS MIgration

DLectual 1 Reputation point
2021-10-31T07:12:45.72+00:00

Hi Team,
we are in the process of migrating very large DFS servers to new data center. Need advise in recommended migration approach with less or no user impact. All the DFS namespace details are published to GPO for users

Current DFS infra: 50TB
4 Name space and 2 DFS servers (DFS1 and DFS2). DFS1 holds all the namespace and only replicates the data to DFS2. In this 70% published namespace and 30% are not published namespace.

below is Approach am planning. Please advise and I do have few questions in these steps and asked the same under each question:
Note: AD remains the same as part of data centre migration.

  1. Create new file server and add-in to AD domain. lets call DFS3
  2. Install dfs namespace and dfs replication role on the new server. (can DFS replication work without installing the role. I have seen in one of the servers where the folder is getting replicated to that server but no DFS replication role installed. ?)
  3. Add new file server (DFS3) as name space server in existing 4 DFS name space.
  4. Create share folder in DFS3 for the replication (what is the permission i need to give if i am using the new folder here ?!)
  5. add the new server dfs 3 shared folder as target in existing DFS namespace and disable the referrals for new one.
  6. robo copy the data for pre-seed. (since i already created a new shared folder in DFS3 for creating the target, so the data will be copied to that ? because i read in MS article i should let robocopy create the folder to avoid hash mis-match for dfs replicatiom). its little confusing how to use robocopy for DFS shares
  7. once the pre-seeding done, enable the referral and add this server to replication group for incremental changes)
  8. later disable the old folder targets.

Please advise?

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Windows Server Storage
Windows Server: A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.Storage: The hardware and software system used to retain data for subsequent retrieval.
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  1. Leon Laude 85,646 Reputation points
    2021-11-01T06:59:41.593+00:00

    Hi @DLectual ,

    Do note that DFS Namespace and DFS Replication are separate roles.

    Can DFS replication work without installing the role
    DFS Replication cannot work without having the DFS Replication role installed.

    If you are using DFS Replication as the primary replication for replicating data between your hosts (DFS1 & DFS2), then I would highly recommend to use robocopy to copy the data over for pre-seed, this fastens the process by a huge margin.

    The steps you've outlined should work just fine, I don't see any issues there, this is a quite normal way to go when migrating DFS servers, or when upgrading DFS servers.
    Once you've added your DFS3 server, make sure to use robocopy to copy all data to it before installing the DFS Replication role and add it to the DFS Replication group(s).

    When disabling the old folder targets & old DFS Namespace servers, restart the old DFS Namespace servers to make sure there aren't any active connections, then leave the disabled for a week or so, after that you can be quite safe to delete them.

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    If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you!

    Best regards,
    Leon

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