Branch Office Solutions in Windows Server 2003 R2: Webcast (5-19-2006)
Good Afternoon all my DFS enthusiasts!
Thank you for attending the web cast on Branch Office Solutions in Windows Server 2003 R2, as promised here is the scrubbed Q/A log. I also have a few really good resources for you to help with Windows 2003R2.
Here is where you can find the session documentation for the web cast:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0d9fd30b-76b3-418e-a1cf-9a9335ab2b9b&DisplayLang=en
There is a free Virtual Lab on the DFS portion of the web cast:
Windows Server 2003 R2: Distributed File System (DFS) Virtual Lab
Watch the stream of the web cast here:
Branch Office Solutions in Windows Server 2003 R2
Please comment if you need more information.
Enjoy!
Question: What would be the difference in functionality between a SBS2003 R2 main server with a Windows Standard 2003 R2 branch Office server and a Windows 2003 R2 Domain Controller in the main office and a Windows 2003 R2 in the branch office in terms of Branch Office functionality?
Answer: Actually the differences are a lot larger than I first mentioned on the webcast. There is a tremendous amount that is different with SBS R2 vs 2003 R2. There is a great FAQ here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/evaluation/faq/r2.mspx so really the main difference in the question is the SBS will continue to use the older methods for DFS.
Question: Do you have any comparison between DFS-R in R2 with Riverbed's WADS or other vendors' WAFS?
Answer: Unfortunately I am not very familiar with that 3rd party applications. Thanks to Jeremy I was able to do a little research on those vendors, and based on what I saw they were down at the hardware level. So in a sense they would help improve overall traffic.
Take a look here to look at the tools: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/051506-wan-acceleration.html
Question: One problem I have with DFS is that it does not guarantee synchronization. E.g. it does not check against the "master copy" for update. Will Microsoft make any enhancement in this regard?
Answer: This is a great comment; Microsoft has done some improvements mainly on how we now work with replication at the individual change level. This is key; remember DFS will replicate the changes of the file, so now for the conflict to occur the users have to be making a change in the same document but also the same area of the doc.
Here are a couple of good articles for you:
Question: How can we use DFS with Exchange and SQL server?
Answer: You cannot use DFS for Exchange and SQL Server.
Question: If we were considering upgrading to R2 for DFS support. What systems would need updating?
Answer: Take a look here for the Windows 2003 R2 DFS Step by step guide: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/14211e1f-2dbd-418d-b721-2005c725ce351033.mspx?mfr=true
Question: Does SysVol leverage the new features?
Answer: No SysVol, still leverages the FRS for replication. This is the FRS’ main role.
Question: I have windows 2003 server do I need to by the 2003 R2?
Answer: Potentially depends on how you bought 2003. R2 is a separate product.
