Windows 2000 FRS to Windows Server 2008 R2 DFSR

Note: This article discusses a scenario that may be addressed by Microsoft Advisory Services.

Microsoft Advisory Services is an hourly fee-based, consultative support option that provides proactive support beyond your break-fix product maintenance needs. This is a remote, phone-based support option that includes working with the same technician for assistance with issues like product migration, code review, or new program development. This service is typically used for shorter engagements, and is designed for developers and IT professionals who do not require the traditional onsite consulting or sustained account management services that are available from other Microsoft support options. This article also provides some self-help resources for this scenario.

For additional information on Microsoft Advisory Services, including on how to engage, refer to this Microsoft web page:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=AdvisoryService

This Advisory Services scenario is designed to assist customers who are replacing their Windows 2000 File Replication System with Windows Server 2008 R2 Distributed File System Replication (DFSR).

In Windows Server 2008 R2, FRS is no longer supported as a replication engine for replicating files except for SYSVOL. Distributed File System Replication (DFSR) is used to replicate the data.

This scenario will discuss planning the migration from a single Windows 2000 FRS replication group to DFSR. The scenario doesn�t cover the actual data move. Also, migrating SYSVOL from FRS to DFSR is not covered.

Statement of Work for this scenario

DFSR Planning

Included with Scope

• Discuss DFSR technology
• Discuss pre-requisites for introducing DFSR in the environment such as a schema upgrade
• Evaluate existing FRS infrastructure on order to determine best method to migrate from FRS to DFSR
• Options on migrating data
• Discuss pre-staging data in order to improve DFSR replication initialization
• If DFSR cannot be implemented at this time and the customer has FRS servers running Windows Server 2003, discuss replacing the Windows 2000 FRS server with Windows Server 2003

Out of Scope

• FRS running on Windows Server 2003. This scenario is strictly for decommissioning Windows 2000 FRS servers and replacing with Windows Server 2008 R2 DFSR
• Creating new replicas if no FRS replicas exist
• Migrating the data
• Migrating SYSVOL from FRS to DFSR

Scoping Questions

1. Are they using FRS to replicate data?
   No: Stop. This scenario is to assist the customer in planning to replace Windows 2000 FRS servers with Windows Server 2008 R2 DFSR. Creating a new file replication infrastructure when one doesn�t exist is outside of this scope
2. Are there Windows Server 2003 FRS servers in the replica?
   Yes: Warning. This scenario only covers decommissioning Windows 2000 FRS servers and replacing with Windows Server 2008 R2 DFSR. Customer will have to consider decommissioning all FRS servers as FRS and DFSR cannot coexist for the same replica. Otherwise, customer can replace the Windows 2000 FRS server with Windows Server 2003.
3. Are there more than one FRS replicas to be migrated to DFSR?
   Yes: Warning. This scenario only covers a single replication group. For each replication group, a new ProAdvisory incident needs to be opened
   
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Below is a list of self-help resources or this scenario. These resources may also be used by Microsoft Support Engineers during an Advisory Services engagement.

976826 Upgrading a member server to Windows Server 2008 R2 does not fully remove FRS

947726 How to use the Backup program to prestage data before DFSR synchronization in Windows Server

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