Greetings! I have a problem: users from two offices with a slow (say 10 Mbit/s) link between them use an old program with its Visual Foxpro 8 database located on the server in the office1. The problem shows when users from office2 make group selections over the database and it hangs for minutes as the app copies the whole file locally. I understand, that file-server concept is obsolete, but we still have to use this app without making any changes to its code.

I wanted to use DFSR to replicate database files between two servers located in office1 and office2 for the app could use local copy of the database. But then I realized, that this won't work as there would be many conflicts of simultaneous writes. Can DFSR be configured to have RO member in office2 and reading database from there, but sending all write requests to the only RW member in office1? Or maybe someone can suggest completely another solution. But please, don't suggest changing database to MSSQL as the app is to be unchangeable.

Hi,

DFSR can be configured Read-Only replication. A downstream RO replicated folder is incapable of sending files outbound. It also prevents the creation, modification, or deletion of files in the RO content set locally.

For more detailed information, please see:

Configuring a read-only replicated folder on Windows Server 2008 R2.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/archive/2009/04/01/configuring-a-read-only-replicated-folder.aspx

Best Regards,

Mandy

I know what RO DFSR is. I need that our app could seamlessly write to the only (maybe remote) RW place, but read from local RO place. Some caching server, which could continuously replicate with remote master RW server. but reads could be handled locally and seamlessly for the app - it must think all the files are located in one place and reads and writes are made there.

Hi,

Im a little unclear about your question and how the app works. I think the Read-Only DFSR should meets your requirements. If not, please give a example to describe your quesiton. 

Best Regards,

Well, there're two offices (office1 and office2) connected by a fairly slow wi-fi bridge. People from both offices should work with Visual Foxpro 8 database (read and add/change data). For now there's an only server in office1, which holds database files on a RW share. People from office1 are happy, because they can access database files (read and write) fairly quickly, but people from office2 have to wait when the app accesses some big database file, because the link is slow. As the app has file-server architecture it has to "copy" the whole file of a table in case of a range scan over it.

It could be good to have a second server with a replicated share in the office2 and point the app to that share for people in office2. In case of reads RO replication can help. But people from office2 need writes to the database too! And here's the problem - RO replication permits writes to RO member.

We could use RW replication, but people from both offices can write to one table file almost simultaneously and while the foxpro app handles that in case of one and the same datafiles place for everyone, I guess there would be many conflicts in case of two RW replicated shares as the app doesn't "know", that there're more than one places with datafiles and handles simultaneous writes only to one place it is configured to access.

It could be good if DFSR had an option to redirect writes to an RW master-server in case of a write attempt to the RO member. Is my explanation clear enough? Sorry, I just don't know how to explain better...