Windows Server Almost Real-Time Directory Replication
The environment
- Windows 2003 R2 Standard File server
- Windows 2003 Web Edition server
The challenge
Need a way to mirror a directory (or share) from the file server to the web server. It needs to be "kinda real-time" with changes synced in a matter of seconds, not minutes. The two servers are on the same gigabit LAN.
We're looking at one directory with about 10K files in just shy of 500 sub-directories (not quite 2GB total size). A one-way deal is fine, all changes should be happening on the file server.
What would you suggest or what have you used in similar situations? Relatively inexpensive (or free!) would be preferred if possible.
Note: DFS-R isn't an option since Microsoft Web Edition never got the R2 option. The older DFS/FRS has caused me too much grief in the past, so no go there either.
Another Note: We used Microsoft's FolderShare to something very similar to this 4 or 5 years ago. Worked great! Alas, it got folded into Windows Live Sync and that appears to have a 20 folder limit.
Solution 1:
As Clint mentioned in his comment, Robocopy might do the job for you if you need near real time file synching. Here's a snippet of some of the options available:
/mon: Monitors the source, and runs again when more than N changes are detected.
/mot: Monitors source, and runs again in M minutes if changes are detected.
For the full list of options and parameters see here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733145(WS.10).aspx
Solution 2:
The currently equivalent of FolderShare would still work for you if you were running Vista/2008 or newer. It's currently known as Live Sync in the Live Essentials Beta, but it will be renamed to Live Mesh once the new Live Essentials is released. This shouldn't be confused with the older Live Mesh that never made it out of beta. Though technically, this new Live Sync/Mesh is using most of the old Live Mesh code.
You might still be able to use the older Live Mesh Beta that is compatible with XP/2003. But no one knows how much longer they'll keep the service active.
The file/folder limits you read about only apply when you're syncing to the cloud. Peer to Peer connections don't have those limits.