Scenario ..

I have have a central windows 2000 server containing a shared folder called
"shareData"
I have a hadfull of remote servers on the the same domain/network that I
would like this folder to be replicated too.
In other words all remote servers should have a copy of the shareData
folder, and get replicated daily in one direction from the central server.

Does windows have a method of doing this? If so can somone point me in the
right direction?

Thanks.

"fErN" <notToday@aeraewoif.com> wrote in message
news:ASNQh.1278$Qr.1138@fe182.usenetserver.com...
Yes, it is called (Enterprise) DFS (with Automatic Replication).

Be careful if you have a LARGE amount of data that changes FREQUENTLY
-- since auto-replication can swamp a WAN line but it is what you are asking
about.


--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
(phone on web site)

I looked into DFS but I don't want to change the name of the mapped shares
in my remote servers.
DFS will create a new target example \\domain\share .. which would force me
to change all the mapped drives.

I also have not figured out how to have this DFS root replicate to the
remote servers.




"Herb Martin" <news@learnquick.com> wrote in message
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"fErN" <notToday@aeraewoif.com> wrote in message
news:w_OQh.43$N01.7@fe29.usenetserver.com...
Only if you want fault tolerance. The old shares can stay just like they
are and the users can connect to either the old (computer specific) names
or the new Enterprise DFS name.

The replication will work through the DFS but the user will also get
fault tolerance, site aware connections, load balancing (etc) DFS features
if they connect to the DFS point.

Add the remote servers\shares as replicas of the root or other DFS node
and then enable the automatic replication using the properties.

Thanks Herb I figured it out. I have another question.

DFS mount point lets say is \\domain\mydata\

I have created root target links to 4 other servers which are domain
controllers at different AD sites within the same domain forest. If a user
at a remote site goes to access \\domain\mydata\ will the DFS know to look
for the closest replica server and hand off the share from there? Or will
it always go to the master source root at the other site.

Ideally I would like it to hand off the data from the closest replica
server.



"Herb Martin" <news@learnquick.com> wrote in message
news:uJEvJ7sdHHA.4772@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

"fErN" <notToday@aeraewoif.com> wrote in message
news:MZPQh.4817$ar.2779@fe24.usenetserver.com...
Yes. (That is the effect but it is really the CLIENT that figures this
out.)

As long as you have correctly configured your Sites, Subnets, SiteLinks, and
DCs assigned to the correct sites.

Clients will favor local Site DFS replica but use a remote if none is
available.

Servers will replicate using site aware methods. (FRS is site aware.)

No.

That is the design.

Replication is FAIRLY efficient but be cautious of large and changing
DFS stores.

--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
(phone on web site)

"Herb Martin" <news@learnquick.com> wrote in message
news:uVdDL7tdHHA.4624@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
Thanks again Herb..

On Apr 4, 9:38 am, "fErN" <notTo...@aeraewoif.com> wrote:
If you think bandwidth and server load could be an issue, take a look
at robocopy. It's included in the Windows 2003 Server Resource Kit
(and previous). It doesn't try to monitor and replicate anything
automatically. You simply create a batch file to "robocopy" your
source to your destination and add it to your task scheduler. The
first time it runs, it will have to do a full copy to get everything
in sync. After that, it will be very fast and only copy the data that
is new or changed. This is what I'm using to do some simple one-way
nightly replication across WAN connections. I didn't need the
complexity and overhead of DFS. It all depends on the details on what
you're trying to accomplish but this is probably the simplest and adds
the least load to the servers and network.

Steve