You cannot use FRS to Replicate Non-SYSVOL data in Windows 2008 and onwards
One of the most important question that arise is why to eliminate or remove FRS
FRS has some major drawbacks which has been taken care of in DFSR
1. Journal Wrap: While FRS use to go into the Journal Wrap condition quite often, DFSR on the other hand is self healing in terms of Journal Wrap
2. Morphing: Conflict Resolution was not that smart in FRS which has been greatly redefined in DFRS
Besides the above two points, we do have much more which DFSR can supports but FRS cannot.
For more information about dfs, Please read the following post:
http://www.adshotgyan.com/2010/12/configuring-dfs-distributed-file-system.html
Lets have a look on the following scenario and configuration
We have configure DFS on two Windows 2003 domain controllers
The data on these two servers is getting replicated using FRS
In DFS, we have configured a Root and a Link with their respective targets on both the domain controllers
The replication is working fine
We now bring in another Windows 2008 Member Server
In DFS, we added this server as a 3rd Root Target and Link Target
The Result: Data will only replicate between the two Windows 2003 Servers and not on the Windows 2008 Server . We will get an Event ID stating that FRS is not supported on Windows 2008 for Non-SYSVOL Contents.
Reason: On Windows 2003, Replication of data (Non-SYSVOL) using FRS is not allowed
The folders for DFS Root and Links has been Pre-Created by the administrator on Windows 2003 domain controller (Win2k3-DC1)
The folders for DFS Root and Links has been Pre-Created by the administrator on Windows 2003 domain controller (Win2k3-DC2)
The Root will be stored on Win2k3-DC1
Creating a Target of the Root to be hosted on Win2k3-DC2
Creating a link under the Root
The Link will be hosted on Win2k3-DC1
Creating a new Target of the Link to be hosted on Win2k3-DC2
Configuring Replication on the link
The folders for DFS Root and Links has been Pre-Created by the administrator on Windows 2008 Member Server (Win2k8-MS)
Adding the Windows 2008 Member Server (Win2k8-MS) as a Root Target in DFS
The content of the Root got replicated on to the Windows 2008 Member Server (Win2k8-MS)
Remember, this replication is automatic as we have not enabled replication on the Root
Adding the Windows 2008 Member Server as a Link Target in DFS
Even though the Root and the Links have been replicated, but still the data inside the link on which we have enabled Replication has not Replicated
We have got an Event ID on the Windows 2008 Member Server stating that the data in the link was not replicated as Windows 2008 doe not support replication of No-SYSVOL contents using FRS
* With inputs from Divya Oberoi
