Branch Office Solutions in Windows Server 2003 R2: Webcast (5-19-2006)

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Good Afternoon all my DFS enthusiasts!

Thank you for attending the web cast on Branch Office Solutions in Windows Server 2003 R2, as promised here is the scrubbed Q/A log.  I also have a few really good resources for you to help with Windows 2003R2. 

Here is where you can find the session documentation for the web cast:
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0d9fd30b-76b3-418e-a1cf-9a9335ab2b9b&DisplayLang=en

There is a free Virtual Lab on the DFS portion of the web cast:
Windows Server 2003 R2: Distributed File System (DFS) Virtual Lab

Watch the stream of the web cast here:
Branch Office Solutions in Windows Server 2003 R2

Please comment if you need more information. 

Enjoy!

Question: What would be the difference in functionality between a SBS2003 R2 main server with a Windows Standard 2003 R2 branch Office server and a Windows 2003 R2 Domain Controller in the main office and a Windows 2003 R2 in the branch office in terms of Branch Office functionality?
Answer: Actually the differences are a lot larger than I first mentioned on the webcast.  There is a tremendous amount that is different with SBS R2 vs 2003 R2.  There is a great FAQ here: https://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/evaluation/faq/r2.mspx   so really the main difference in the question is the SBS will continue to use the older methods for DFS.

Question: Do you have any comparison between DFS-R in R2 with Riverbed's WADS or other vendors' WAFS?
Answer: Unfortunately I am not very familiar with that 3rd party applications.  Thanks to Jeremy I was able to do a little research on those vendors, and based on what I saw they were down at the hardware level.  So in a sense they would help improve overall traffic. 

Take a look here to look at the tools: https://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/051506-wan-acceleration.html 

Question: One problem I have with DFS is that it does not guarantee synchronization. E.g. it does not check against the "master copy" for update. Will Microsoft make any enhancement in this regard?
Answer: This is a great comment; Microsoft has done some improvements mainly on how we now work with replication at the individual change level.This is key; remember DFS will replicate the changes of the file, so now for the conflict to occur the users have to be making a change in the same document but also the same area of the doc.
Here are a couple of good articles for you:

Question: How can we use DFS with Exchange and SQL server?
Answer: You cannot use DFS for Exchange and SQL Server.

Question: If we were considering upgrading to R2 for DFS support. What systems would need updating?
Answer: Take a look here for the Windows 2003 R2 DFS Step by step guide: https://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/14211e1f-2dbd-418d-b721-2005c725ce351033.mspx?mfr=true

Question: Does SysVol leverage the new features?
Answer: No SysVol, still leverages the FRS for replication.  This is the FRS’ main role.

Question: I have windows 2003 server do I need to by the 2003 R2?
Answer: Potentially depends on how you bought 2003.  R2 is a separate product.