I'm facing a frustrating issue with AutoDesk Inventor where saving files takes over 3 minutes whenever the DFSR service is active. Interestingly, if I stop the DFSR service, the save time drops to about 5 seconds. This happens regardless of whether I'm using DFS Namespaces or not. We're currently using a local file server on Server 2022 with files accessed via a mapped drive using the server's FQDN. The DFSR is set up solely for replicating around 300K files and folders to a remote location for redundancy. I've checked all the usual suspects like staging folder space and server resources but haven't pinpointed the issue. I captured a Wireshark trace and noticed that AutoDesk is saving files inefficiently, with many small buffers and constant opening and closing of files. This makes me think that DFSR might be causing delays in locking the files during replication. Has anyone dealt with something like this? Are there registry tweaks to delay file replication? I also have an open case with Microsoft, but they seem to be shifting the troubleshooting responsibility back to AutoDesk. Any suggestions would be helpful!
4 Answers
You might want to play around with settings like file leasing and durable handles, but honestly, you're up against some poorly optimized software. Just consider whether the time you're investing in troubleshooting is worth it compared to switching to Storage Replica, as someone suggested earlier.
Have you tried adjusting the DFSR replication window to outside of working hours? That way, you can at least have some daily sync until you sort this out. We faced similar issues and found it better to keep our AutoDesk file server simple, moving to rsync for backups instead of real-time replication.
Instead of using DFSR, you might want to consider using Storage Replica for redundancy. It could really simplify things since that's what it's designed for, whereas DFSR isn't optimal for this kind of task.
I agree that transitioning to Storage Replica might be better but that would require some significant planning. Plus, we’d need to figure out monitoring since that’s not something we're currently using.
It's pretty clear that AutoDesk isn't built to work with DFSR, especially since you're not using it in an Active/Active setup. You might want to focus on finding a more appropriate file replication method that suits your needs without compatibility issues.
Exactly! We're not using DFSN actively, and I just need to replicate files without any real-time access. The destination server isn’t in use at all.
I did try changing the replication window to after hours, but it’s still slow. The save times are wonky too; sometimes it’s 3 minutes, other times about 1.5 minutes. I can't figure out why it’s so inconsistent!