Create a Connection

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Follow this procedure to create a connection.

To create a connection

  1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DFS Management.

  2. In the console tree, under the Replication node, right-click the replication group that you want to create a new connection in, and then click New Connection.

  3. Specify the sending and receiving members, and specify the schedule to use for the connection. At this point, replication is one-way.

  4. Select Create a second connection in the opposite direction to create a second connection for two-way replication between the sending and receiving members.

Additional considerations

  • Replication does not begin immediately on the new connection. The new connection settings must be replicated to all domain controllers, and the sending and receiving members must poll their closest domain controller to obtain these settings. The amount of time this takes depends on AD DS replication latency and the long polling interval (60 minutes) on each member.

  • Although it is technically possible to create a one-way replication connection, doing so can cause numerous issues including health check topology errors, staging issues, and issues with the DFS Replication database. A better solution is to simulate a one-way connection, which includes:

    • Training administrators to make changes only on the servers that you want to designate as primary servers. Then let the changes replicate to the destination servers.

    • Configuring the share permissions on the destination servers so that end users do not have Write permissions. If no changes are allowed on the branch servers, then there is nothing to replicate back, simulating a one-way connection and keeping WAN utilization low.

Additional references