Move DFS to 2003 R2 to 2008 R2 server. What am I doing wrong?

[ranj]

Hi

I have read a number of threads on various Forums and don't understand why I can't replicate 3 shares we have within a DFS on a 2003 R2 server which is NOT a DC and move these onto a 2008 R2 member server so I can decomission the 2003 server.

We use DFS mainly to host software packages and also as a repository area for all of our MSI's which are deployed across the clients in our organisation.

Currently these are on a 2003 R2 Enterprise server running SP2. We only have the 1 DFS server but now I want to decomission this server and move these shares onto a 2008 R2 server also running enterprise.

On the new server I installed the file services role as well as the DFS management tool.

I clicked on add namespaces to display and it showed me available names space for the domain which was domainname.pri\dfs and this is the one which is located on the 2003 server. So I added this in and now its available in the list. Within here I could see the 3 shares which we have on DFS.

I noticed that at the top it said 'Domain based in Windows 2000 Server mode'. I wasn't sure if this was related to domain functional level in AD and was confused because our domain functional level is set to 2008 and forest functional level is set to 2003.

I tried to create the exact folder shares that I had on the 2003 server, onto the 2008 server with the exact share and security permissions also and I added this new 2008 server as a Namespace server which it seemed to do successfully.

If I click on open in explorer, it correctly shows the 3 shares and so I know its linking back to the 2003 server.

What I wanted to do is replicate the folders on the 2003 server to the 2008 server. Once all shares are on the 2008 server, I wanted to remove the old 2003 namespace server from DFS management and then decomission it but it just doesnt seem to work.

If I try to create an additional folder target for a share for the new server, it asks me to create a replication group but when I do this I get the error message that the DFS replication service is not installed.

I have checked the DFS replication service and it is running

I only have DC's running 2008 and AD is running in 2008 domain functional level mode.

Does anyone know why I am not able to replicate because my understanding was that 2003 r2 was able to support dfs-r and replication should work or have I not understood this properly.


Others in other threads are saying that I should use the file server migraton toolkit and move the folder with permissions over to the 2008 server and then remove the links and this should work also but I was hoping I could add the new 2008 server and get DFS to replicate it to the 2008 server and then remove the targets from old server and decomission it.


Maybe I haven't understood this correctly but that what I thought DFS does well at and replicate folders across multiple servers?

If anyone can advise it would be most appreciated.

Thanks

[oxide54]

have you installed the DFS role on the new serveR? if you haven;t install it, but select "Configure DFS later" (or whatever) during the add role wizard.

[ranj]

have you installed the DFS role on the new serveR? if you haven;t install it, but select "Configure DFS later" (or whatever) during the add role wizard.

Hi On the new server i have installed the DFS role, I have heard that I may need to install DFS-R on the old server for the 2 to work. Do you know how I could do this, I understand I need the 2nd disk for the 20003 R2 disk.

[ranj]

have you installed the DFS role on the new serveR? if you haven;t install it, but select "Configure DFS later" (or whatever) during the add role wizard.

I have just installed DFS management on old 2003 server and seems to be working now. I let you know how I get on.

[OzTiger1050]

ranj, thanks for this I had the exact same scenario, hopefully your fix is the one for my problem too, just waiting now.