DFSR SYSVOL Migration FAQ: Useful trivia that may save your follicles

SYSVOL migration from File Replication Services (FRS) to Distributed File System Replication (DFSR)

Group Policy Team Blog — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:55:01 GMT

It’s come to my attention (in a blunt object kind of way) that you’ve been waiting to migrate from Windows

SYSVOL migration from FRS to DFSR - Whitepaper Released

Ask the Directory Services Team — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:54:54 GMT

Ned here. It's done, it's out, come get it, stop yelling at me! :-) SYSVOL Replication Migration Guide:

re: DFSR SYSVOL Migration FAQ: Useful trivia that may save your follicles

NedPyle [MSFT] — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:30:32 GMT

Yes, you can delete the old folder. ANd as long as you are not using FRS for any custom replicas, it's safe to stop and disable that service as well.

- Ned

re: DFSR SYSVOL Migration FAQ: Useful trivia that may save your follicles

MatM — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:58:58 GMT

Thanks Ned,

One more quick question - Because I like things neat and tidy, what are the cleanup steps that can be taken after a successful migration?

I take it it's safe to delete the old SYSVOL directory, and to disable/remove the NTFRS service?

re: DFSR SYSVOL Migration FAQ: Useful trivia that may save your follicles

NedPyle [MSFT] — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:04:18 GMT

Yep, only the folder. The Share is still SYSVOL no matter what (can't change that, the earth would spin off its axis).

Coolness, have fun. :)

- Ned

re: DFSR SYSVOL Migration FAQ: Useful trivia that may save your follicles

MatM — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:52:42 GMT

Ahh, cool. I figured that the new SYSVOL name in 2008 was SYSVOL_DFSR.

I will demote and re-promote.

And nope, it doesn't matter from a technical perspective, I am just a bit of a perfectionist and want things to be neat and tidy.

re: DFSR SYSVOL Migration FAQ: Useful trivia that may save your follicles

NedPyle [MSFT] — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:12:34 GMT

If you mean just rename the folder 'on the fly', I'm afraid not.

The only way to do this would be to DCPROMO the server down, verify AD replication of the demotion has converged, then DCPROMO back up. When it comes up it will use the default SYSVOL folder.

Out of curiousity, does this matter to you? You definitely should never assume any folder names or paths and look them up from the registry or AD or where ever.

- Ned

re: DFSR SYSVOL Migration FAQ: Useful trivia that may save your follicles

MatM — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:05:13 GMT

Hi Ned,

After the migration, can we rename SYSVOL_DFSR to SYSVOL?

re: DFSR SYSVOL Migration FAQ: Useful trivia that may save your follicles

cnschindler — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:42:42 GMT

Hi Ned! Good to know that you are aware of the issue and that a fix is on the way! Christian

re: DFSR SYSVOL Migration FAQ: Useful trivia that may save your follicles

NedPyle [MSFT] — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:01:14 GMT

Argh! I was hoping no one would run into that one, as most customers don't sub-OU DC's thankfully. We actually found that a while ago and have a hotfix that is nearly ready to go live (we will have a KB for it and will update . It is already fixed in Win7.

And thanks for the kind words. :)

- Ned