DFS and software assignments

[Tommy Cooksey]

I want to roll software and make it site aware. So I create a DFS share and
call it Software. Give dom users read access. Create Replica's for each
sites file server.(38 sites)
Is it possible to take files(office XP) that are very large and just place
them in the share that is the replica folders from the local CD(on the file
server) instead of replication from the master etc. and still allow for the
software distribution via GPO's to be site aware and not have errors trying
to replicate the files that where copied in locally?

TIA,

TC

 

[Daniel Billingsley]

Just so I'm clear, are you saying you want to use DFS to make the GPOs
easier to manage, but you don't want the Office installation to replicate
across the 38 sites?

Someone else can chime in here, but this article may be helpful.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;266679

 

[Brendon Rogers]

Dfs and FRS are two separate items. FRS is typically used to keep two Dfs
links in sync, but you don't have to use this. You can use manual
replication - so yes, you could copy the office installables into each Dfs
link. If you make changes later on you can use something like ROBOCOPY to
manually sync the changes. This is exactly how we do our Office XP install,
although we don't copy the installation files straight from the CD, we do
create and Admin Installation which allows us to slipstream SP1 & 2 and any
office hotfixes.

If you want to use FRS to keep the Dfs links in sync and you are worried
about the initial replication traffic of 4 - 500MB across your WAN links
then follow the MS article that Daniel posted; simply copying the the CD
into each FRS enabled Dfs link aint gonna cut it.