Resilio Connect is a good alternative to DFSR. Here you can see the comparison chart.
Migrating from DFSR to Resilio Connect is done in a few steps:
1) Prepare a proper Agent and/or Job Profile with optimal parameters for your specific use case in advance.
2) Add the Resilio folder to the DFSR exception list and, optional as will be seen below - pause the replication group which is going to be migrated.
3) Create a Resilio job that will take over and continue synchronizing the distributed folders.
Step1
Resilio Connect is flexible enough to cover many use cases and offers different parameters for flexibility. Please follow the below-suggested guidelines that you can customize per needs.
Create a new Agent profile, give it some name, for example, "Replace DFSR". It will hold the parameters discussed below.
Required:
Click and edit these two parameters from the list (use search to find them in the list)
Disable differential sync = No
Resolve filename conflicts = Yes
Through "Add custom parameter" add these two parameters one by one
prioritize_initial_indexing_mode = 15
lazy_indexing = false
Save this profile. You might need to add some more parameters there for other use cases mentioned below.
Optional: add/edit these parameters depending on the specific case or requirements:
If you need to sync NTFS permissions
Create a Job Profile and set "Synchronize NTFS permissions" as "Sync full ACL" if necessary. Ensure that permissions are synced on both ends (otherwise, Agents may pick which perms to deliver randomly)
If you have over 5 million files in the folder
Apply preset "Over 10M of files" in the Agent Profile.
If you have large files that change frequently
For this use case, optimal parameters are available for Agents of version 2.11.6 and newer. Add these custom parameters to the Agent Profile. See here for more details about this use case
torrent_rolling_checksum = false
download_priority = 2
recheck_locked_files_interval = 60 (it's in seconds, the interval can be increased if necessary)
Step 2
Ensure to add the .sync
folder to your DFSR exception list. It is Resilio Agents' service subfolder, needed for an Agent to synchronize a directory. Ignoring it by DFSR is required to avoid possible access collisions.
Using the DFS Management tool, pause the replication group that you're going to switch to Resilio Connect. Pausing DFSR is optional provided the Synchronization job from step3 is paused right after being created.
Step 3
Create a Synchronization job. It's highly advisable to do it during low activity hours so that the agents have time to complete the initial index of all the files.
Be sure that the Agents in this job and the job itself have the proper Profiles assigned (the ones created in Step 1).
If you have a large number of files and limited RAM (see RAM requirement here), start with a Distribution Job as explained in step (a) and then create a Synchronization Job that monitors recently modified files. If there is enough RAM to monitor all files, continue to step (b).
(a) If the servers are completely out-of-sync, initial sync is needed. If not, proceed to (b) right away
- Select the primary server which has all the files.
- Create a Distribution Job to transfer these files to other servers using batch transfers.
- Once completed, continue to step (b).
(b) Create a Synchronization Job that will keep the new files in sync.
See here for more details about RAM consumption and the required steps for this use case.
Assume the current DFSR setup includes a namespace called “Marketing” with a replication group called “CoverAds”, which replicates folders on several servers (two in our example), we’ll set up Resilio Connect to replicate these two target folders. Optionally you may pause DFS replication for this replication group.
1) Create a Synchronization job, with these servers and Read-Write Agents in the job. Select the paths accordingly
2) Proceed with configuring the job, and be sure to use the Job profile from step1 (if necessary) for this job.
3) Review the configuration and save.
4) Pause the job right after it's created so that is does not conflict with DFRS.
5) Once indexing is complete, first stop DFRS and then unpause the job.
To learn that indexing is complete look at column Status in the job run details -> Agents, as well as Files column. Status will change from "indexing" to paused and files count will stop growing.
It's expected that some file errors will pop up. Most likely issues are errors about permissions to access files, errors about filename conflicts, synchronization timeout errors.
Once the job shows a matching number of files for all Agents in Job runs -> (job run name) -> Agents -> Files column - it is ready to handle new file changes.