I'm looking to set up DFS Replication between two servers. This will be for backup only...not for shared access. If one box goes down, we'll simply change the name and IP of the second box and work from that.
The folder to be synced is very large...almost 600,000 files. The folder would only be synced once an hour...and during that time, there may only be a couple hundred files changed or added. I would initially copy the folder with Explorer to the second machine before setting up DFS so the first time it runs, there won't be too many changes.
Can I set up the folder source and folder target without creating shares? I'm thinking something like \\server1\d$\source and \\server2\d$\target. If I must create a share for each, can I give the share the minimal permissions for DFS to work without affecting the folder security I have already in place? It is already working with server1 folder so I don't want those permissions to be affected. These folders will be accessed by our ERP program and us admins may use Explorer. Everyone else will access them through the ERP program.