Review Requirements for DFS Replication

Updated: July 1, 2009

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Before you can deploy DFS Replication, you must configure your servers as follows:

  • Extend (or update) the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) schema to include Windows Server 2003 R2 or Windows Server 2008 schema additions. For information about extending the AD DS schema, see the Microsoft Web site at (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=93051).

  • Verify that all members of the replication group are running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 R2. DFS Replication is supported on all x64 and x86 editions of Windows Server 2008. DFS Replication is not available for Itanium-Based Systems.

  • Install the File Services role with the DFS Replication role service on all servers that will act as members of a replication group.

  • Install the DFS Management snap-in on a server to manage replication. This server cannot run a Server Core installation of the Windows Server 2008 operating system.

  • Contact your antivirus software vendor to check that your antivirus software is compatible with DFS Replication.

  • Ensure that all servers in a replication group are located in the same forest. You cannot enable replication across servers in different forests.

  • Store replicated folders on NTFS volumes.

  • Locate replicated folders for failover clusters in the local storage of a node. The DFS Replication service is not designed to coordinate with cluster components, and the service will not fail over to another node. You can locate replicated folders on a storage area network (SAN) if you allocate the storage exclusively to the relevant node and do not share it with the other nodes. However, the DFS Replication service will not fail over to another node.

Additional references