File replication between 2 different domains

[mrfreezy]

I was wondering is there a way to achieve file replication between 2 different domains (that have external trust to each other)?

The scenario is this.

2 windows 2000 domain networks with AD

2 file servers resides respectively on domain 1 and domain 2.

domain 1 file server houses some files (800megs worth) that needs to be replicated across to domain 2 file server, off hours of course. Reason is their connection is slow so when the users over there (domain 2) pull files across the network through our share its very slow. the suggestion was to replicate a copy over during off hours so users can run the files internall on their lan.

Is there something on windows 2000 that i can use or do i have to purchase extra software to achieve this?

I was thinking maybe DFS, but i've never used it before so maybe someone can let me know if i am going inthe right direction.

[MazX_Napalm]

I'm thinking of doing the same thing. I also wanted to use DFS "cross domain". That is the ideal. I also looked into Robocopy because it has the opion of running when x amount of changes and/or x minutes have passed. The third option was an off site data centre and MS Share Point.

From this the robocopy seemed the easiest to set up. The advantages are Free, ability to set when replication takes place, can be run manually, can replicate on time stamp, file atributes can be set or kept on replication (ntfs too), can work cross platform (as long as the destination accepts unc names)

DFS is a more robust way. It too is free, you can assign costs to your connection, easy to manage. But I don't know how to run it cross domain.

The last one would cost money, but replication could be done anytime, no direct link between the domains is needed, the most robust of the three.

Still to make my desission. Hope I comes from this thread.

[mrfreezy]

Thanks for the tips.

I am going to try robocopy as a trial run and a small scale solution until I can implement something more managable and flexible.

As for DFS i'm having a problem with visualizing the idea.

Say I have domain A and domain B

I create a DFS root , then a DFS link to the folder A on domain A. I create a replica set on domain B folder B.

So basically folder B on domain B (assuming cross domain works with external trust) should get a replica set whenever the schedule to replicate hits.

I can set the folder B to be a local share and users from domain B can access that share locally so they won't have to pull across the link between domain A and domain B.

am I visualizing this right?

[MazX_Napalm]

Sounds right.

Say you have a large company and they have offices all over.

There is a folder that has a set of template files that need to get used by all offices.

Each office server has a shared folder called Templates.

With DFS those folders are "mirrored". If a new template is added then, when replication starts, that file is updated on all members of the DFS.

You will have an exact copy of the folder in every office (depending on how often replication takes place)

[mrfreezy]

I have tested out robocopy and it works. However, this is probably not a good way to replicate large amounts of data with this.

I basically wrote a batch script and had windows task scheduler run it.

I do have one problem with my batch script that i wrote. If I have a folder name that has spaces. Like _source1 and _source2 path.

Does anyone know how to represent a space properly in a dos script? When I run it as is, it returns an error because right when the first space on the file path, the program thinks the path is finished and therefore cannot find that path.

@ECHO OFF

SETLOCAL

SET _source1=\\files2\pub$\pub & Manuals\test1\

SET _source2=\\files2\pub$\pub & Manuals\test2\

SET _dest1=\\files1\manual$\test1\

SET _dest2=\\files1\manual$\test2\

SET _what=/COPYALL /B /SEC /MIR

:: /COPYALL :: COPY ALL file info

:: /B :: copy files in Backup mode.

:: /SEC :: copy files with SECurity

:: /MIR :: MIRror a directory tree

SET _options1=/R:0 /W:0 /LOG:ASPFILE.txt /NFL /NDL

:: /R:n :: number of Retries

:: /W:n :: Wait time between retries

:: /LOG :: Output log file

:: /NFL :: No file logging

:: /NDL :: No dir logging

SET _options2=/R:0 /W:0 /LOG:MPMLOG.txt /NFL /NDL

:: /R:n :: number of Retries

:: /W:n :: Wait time between retries

:: /LOG :: Output log file

:: /NFL :: No file logging

:: /NDL :: No dir logging

ROBOCOPY %_source1% %_dest1% %_what% %_options1%

ROBOCOPY %_source2% %_dest2% %_what% %_options2%

[MazX_Napalm]

Use it like this - "\\server\path a\ "

@ECHO OFF

title ROBOCOPY SCRIPT

SETLOCAL

SET _source1="\\files2\pub$\pub & Manuals\test1\"

SET _source2="\\files2\pub$\pub & Manuals\test2\"

SET _dest1=\\files1\manual$\test1\

SET _dest2=\\files1\manual$\test2\

SET _what=/COPYALL /B /SEC /MIR

:: /COPYALL :: COPY ALL file info

:: /B :: copy files in Backup mode.

:: /SEC :: copy files with SECurity

:: /MIR :: MIRror a directory tree

SET _options1=/R:0 /W:0 /LOG:ASPFILE.txt /NFL /NDL

:: /R:n :: number of Retries

:: /W:n :: Wait time between retries

:: /LOG :: Output log file

:: /NFL :: No file logging

:: /NDL :: No dir logging

SET _options2=/R:0 /W:0 /LOG:MPMLOG.txt /NFL /NDL

:: /R:n :: number of Retries

:: /W:n :: Wait time between retries

:: /LOG :: Output log file

:: /NFL :: No file logging

:: /NDL :: No dir logging

ROBOCOPY %_source1% %_dest1% %_what% %_options1%

ROBOCOPY %_source2% %_dest2% %_what% %_options2%

Save it as a .cmd file (or .bat)

BTW Robocopy also uses job files. A job line is just a list of the options. Look in the documentation.

ie: robocopy /job:option1

The documentation tells you how to to either write a job file or use the save option to created one.