Mariette, DFS was running and populating new 2016 server with files. After 24 hours it looked like we were well over 95% of files copied. I ran DFS diagnostic health report. It had one glaring error: "DFS replication service detected that the staging area usage has exceeded its quota size of 4096 MB".
I did some research and found this Microsoft blog post about it, which included PowerShell scripts to calculate total size of 32 largest files. In this case, the customer has over 32 very large PST files, total equaling 42GB. So I increased minimum DFS storage quota to 45GB on both servers. This morning, it does look like more files are being it is copying more files over.
I ran a new DFS health report and it now tells me that "Staging folder for replicated folder CEA has exceeded its configured size".
I figured I'd better check with you before making any other adjustments ...
Mariette, while DFS is progressing, could I proceed with next step -- using 2016 Essentials connector to re-attach workstations to new server? Or do I or should I wait until DFS is completed successfully?
Yes, you can continue with installing the Connector software on the clients :) Just wait with implementing new policies until we have evaluated what effect that will have on the users.
Thanks. Understood.
Oh, I just saw where DFS needs to be completed, and we break replication, BEFORE we start implementing new group policies on the new server.
Is there a way to "bypass" the DFS staging process and have the replication occur directly between the two servers? Seems to me, that with a one-to-one server migration on an internal LAN network, the staging process is overkill. I can see where there are multiple servers in multiple locations, staging is important.
Just wondering ... of course, doing away with the staging might mean re-starting the replication from scratch. Yuck.
Do you have redirected folders on the old server? Did you implement Folder redirection on the SBS? Where those folders included in your replication sets? If so, you must break replication before you implement new Folder Redirection policies on the new server.
No, this customer is NOT using redirected folders on the old SBS server. I believe you checked that when you remoted in the other day. I just checked and the Redirected Folder has 0 files.
OK, so why not let it finish? What is the problem?
I think you need to make staging area even bigger. The article you mentioned gives you the math how to calculate that.
I ran their script which said to use the total of the 32 largest files, and it calculated it to be 42GB. I made it even larger: 45GB. But in scrolling through the responses on that post, I saw that they had variations on the script which could result in different calculated size. I ran them all, and the largest calculated size was 137GB. Let's see what happens... or how long it takes ...
After adjusting staging area and restarting DFSR all seems to be working. If you run health reports make sure you check the date and time of the errors reported, in most cases, they are old and no longer valid. Using DFSR for file and folder migration is really a no-brainer once setup and configured. It runs in the background and you can focus on other parts of your migration project. You should make sure that database files from LOB applications can be migrated with DFSR before you include those in a replication set, ask your vendor before you use DFSR with database files.
Thanks for working with me on the issues you had :)
Mariette - there was a difference in the # of files between the two servers in the folder being replicated (over 500GB of data). I discovered that DFS, by default, does NOT copy over .bak, .tmp, or ~* files.
The only error & warnings in the DFS health report are from 3 days ago prior to my increasing the size of the staging folder.
If that's the case, once ll workstations have been migrated over and the last of the QuickBook files have been copied over, I should then be in a position to break the replication with the old server by tomorrow to move on to the next chapter and clean up group policy, etc. Correct?
Hello Kevin, you can do a search for those extensions that are not migrated by DFSR. If it then matches the number of files you must see to be synced by DFSR you are ready to break replication partners.
Your browser doesn't have Flash, Silverlight or HTML5 support.
Thanks, Mariette. Your guides and your assistance and knowledge have been excellent. Thanks for clarifying the messages in the DFS Health Report.
Thanks. I will be using "Beyond Compare" to compare primary folders between the two servers. I'll let you know if anything else is discovered.