DFSR Preexisting / Odd issue question

[Joe_Bishop]

Hi there! 

I am in the process of decommissioning a Windows 2008 R2 DFSR member server, I have the last lot of files and folders to move to our new 2016 DFSR member. Robocopying folders/files and DFSR hash comparison was successful, however once I have added the new 2016 member to the replication group to sync the remaining files after a while all of the copied data on the 2016 server is moved to preexisting? 

When creating the replication group, the 2008 server is the authoritative member so that any files that are added can be replicated across. I have a feeling this has something to do with the DFSR database on one of the member servers, however I thought i'd post a question and see if anyone else has experienced this or can shed some light on it for me? 

Thanks in advance!

[#2]

During initial sync or cloning, files with the same name and path that exist only on the downstream server move to: <rf> \Dfsrprivate\PreExisting. We don't want a special copy of this directory using robocopy. copying the root directory where end-user data reside to the target server is enough and enables the replication between servers. Note: I would recommend using one-way replication with Make read-only from the target server to the source to avoid any duplicate file conflict algorithm

[#3]

Thanks Seshadrr, when I did the original robocopy I excluded the DFSRPrivate folder, so just had the end user data copied over. It was when I set up the replication group and it performed the "intial sync" that all but a third of the folders and files were moved to preexisting. I will give the read only replication a go on the target server, i need to do another re copy now as the data is out of date. I will let you know how this goes.

[#4]

When you are using the second set of copies, i mean its delta set from the source to destination. To avoid duplicate folder to be created on target server, better to use MIR switch which will have identical files/folders set on the source -> target server