I have two servers in two separate locations connected via point-to-point VPN (10 Mbps). Both are Server 2008 R2 Std w/ SP1. Server A is the primary while server B is part of the “mesh” topology. There are only two servers in this DFS configuration. There is 417 GB being replicated and the staging area is 450 GB. The largest file is roughly 1.2 GB. Replication speed is set to 4 Mbps so it doesn’t completely take all bandwidth for the offices. During the initial replication folder shares and access were turned off.
It took almost 6 days for Server B to finally get Event ID 4104, so I thought that meant what it said - The DFS Replication service successfully finished initial replication on the replicated folder. When testing from Server B I added a file and it appears on Server A. I delete the file from Server B and it deletes from Server A. I alter the file on Server B and it reflects the change on Server A.
Problem I have is when I try the same from Server A. I add a file to Server A and it never appears on Server B. If I delete a file from Server A it never deletes from Server B. There are no new Event IDs that appear on either server. I have attempted to restart the services and the Event IDs I get refer to services being stopped, started, and successful connection…on both servers. Yet, I still cannot replicate properly from Server A to Server B. Only from Server B to Server A.
The Staging folder on Server A made it to 380 GB at one point so I eventually stopped services, deleted the contents, and restarted services in case there was some kind of corruption that was stopping replication. After restarting the services the staging folder is now back to 1.1 GB and slowly climbing, yet nothing appears to be happening and no new Event IDs other than stop, restart, and successful connection. Still, when adding files or deleting from Server A they do not do the same on Server B.
Last week I stopped DFS altogether, deleted the membership and created a new one from scratch. Same thing eventually happened.
I’m new at DFS and, like many in IT, am being forced to wear many hats and tackle this on my own. Any advice/suggestions will be appreciated.
~Rick