RoboCopy Of Data Excluding Multiple System Directories

Sometimes we get a requirement to copy the complete volume to other file server and add it in DFSN and DFSR.

When you create a root folder of the volume on other server new volume which has lots of NTFS permissions. It gets difficult to copy the exact ACL on the folder of new volume. If we robocopy the entire volume then we ended up with some system folders which we don't want on our new volume, like $RECYCLE.BIN, System Volume Information and DFSR Private. Cleaning these folders are also time consuming.

You can use /xd filter in robocopy command to exclude all system folders which will reduce you work load while copying the data. Like below,

Change Primary Member On DFS Replication Group

First, you need to know which member server is acting as a primary member of a replication group. From which other member servers will consider this server which would have the authorized data to replicate.

DFSR: Limiting the Number of Imported Replicated Folders when using DB cloning

Basic : Export a Clone of the DFS Replication Database

Before reading this article, you should read the above attached article to get the basic understanding about "DFS Replication Database Cloning". If you any questions regarding this article, please let me know. But make sure, your doubts should be clear before going further.

Cloning database can cause some problems when you have multiple Replicated Folders on a volume. Lets say, you have volume by the name of "Department" and on it you Replicated Folders like: Finance, Sales and Marketing and you are going to create one more Replicated Folder by the name "HR". Hope this small example make sense about multiple Replicated Folders on a single volume.

Here is the scenario to make you more understand with help of above example. You have three servers in your organisation, Server1, Server2, and Server3. Replicated Folders "Finance", "Sales", "Marketing" and "HR" already available on Server1 and Server2. Even on Server3, "Finance", "Sales" and "Marketing" are also there and in sync with Server1 and Server 2 but you need to add "HR" now on Server3. It means, you will first robocopy entire "HR" folder from Server1/Server2 to Server3 and then import replication database.

As per my first article about Database Cloning, i will export the replication database from Server1 as all replicated folders of the volume are in Normal state. While exporting i don't have much to do and i will end-up with the complete clone of the replication database and a configuration xml file from Server. In short, the replication database which i got after run the command, it belongs to all Replicated folders of the same volume. But i am in process to work only on "HR" folder and i don't want other Replicated Folders to be impacted.

I apologize to make it little lengthy, i just want you to make clear about the situation and scenario. Now here is the solution.

Export a Clone of the DFS Replication Database

Export a Clone of the DFS Replication Database

Here i am going to explain about DFSR new feature “Database Cloning” which is introduced in Windows Server 2012 R2.

Whenever we add a new member to the replication group for the first time, replace server hardware or recover from loss of corruption of the DFS replication database. It takes long time to do the initial synchronisation which takes long time to complete and then files and folders replication starts. By this feature, we can reduce the initial synchronisation time by up to 99% under ideal circumstances.

“Source Server” from which you will export the DFS Replication Database.
“Destination Server” on which you will import the DFS Replication Database.

DFS Replication State Codes

Sometimes it is really important to know health status of all replication groups. If there is any problem in the DFS replication, this is the first step to perform to check the state of replication groups of each server.

Lets say, you have two file servers in your office, FS001 and FS002 and has many DFS replication groups in your DFS management. On a particular group, files and folders are replication from FS001 to FS002, but not replicating from FS002 to FS001. It seems that there is some problem with the replication from FS002 to FS001. Best way is to run the below mentioned command on both servers.

Storage issue due to deduplication

So this time, i was little occupied with some issue related to file services where i was running out of space on a SAN volume. After troubleshoot a lot, i found some useful info about DeDuplication problems. So i am going to explain each and every stuff about his issue. Might be it can help you in your environment if in case you run in to the same problem.

Information about Servers and Folder :

I have two server FS01 and FS02.

Each server has 3 SAN Volumes. (E.g. Users, Public, Work)

Three DFS Namespaces \mydoamin.net\Users\India, \mydoamin.net\Users\Public and \mydoamin.net\Users\Work

Deduplication is enabled on all three volumes.
All users hits FS02 to access Public drive, FS01 Public is just for backup.