I'm trying to use DFS Replication database cloning to replicate a large pre-seeded file share. The production data is closer to 80 TB, although I created a small test replication group to troubleshoot first. The source folder is G:test3 on SERVER1, and the matching pre-seeded destination folder is M:dfsr-receive on SERVER2.
I exported the DFSR database from SERVER1 with Export-DfsrClone, copied the resulting files to SERVER2, and then ran Import-DfsrClone -Volume M: -Path C:dfsrclone-fromserver1. The import fails with error 0x00002397. The DFS Replication event log reports error 9111: "MSXML.DLL is not installed."
Both servers are running modern Windows versions, including Server 2022 in the test environment, and msxml.dll does not appear to be present. I have tried clearing the DFSR data from System Volume Information, restarting the DFSR service, and testing with newly formatted volumes, but the same error occurs.
I also noticed that Get-DfsrFileHash returns different values for identical files on the two servers, even though Get-FileHash produces the same SHA-256 hash. For example, hello.txt has the same standard file hash on both systems but different DFSR hashes. Is that expected, and could it be related to the clone import failure? Has anyone successfully used DFSR database cloning on current Windows Server versions, or is there a better supported way to attach an already-seeded destination without forcing tens of terabytes to replicate again?
1 Answer
For a smaller test set, the simplest workaround may be to configure normal DFSR replication while the destination is offline or otherwise unavailable to the source. Depending on the storage and network speed, letting DFSR perform the initial sync can take less time than troubleshooting the cloning workflow. With a dataset this large, though, I’d test carefully first and avoid assuming that a database clone will work just because the cmdlets are still documented.
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