DFS Ring Replication Topology

[marius.hole]

Hi

We have some weird problems on the servers.

We have two dc with dfs installed.

\\server1\dfs\

\\server2\dfs\

=

\\domain.int\dfs\

The following problems have occurred lately;

A user save his work in his home directory (\\domain.int\dfs\home\%username%\), for further use in an other building or on a other floor.

Problem here is, sometimes the files wont show on the next machine they log on to.

Usually the files are to be found on either server1 or server2 share if you can’t see them on the \\domain.int\dfs share. And that may be explained with the replication.

The weirdness of this is; sometimes they can see the files in \\domain.int\dfs\etc but not on \\server1\dfs\ or \\server2\dfs\. What you see depends on where and with what you log on to the domain with.

My thoughts are that it may have something to do with a cache somewhere. In that case, where?

We use terminal servers, laptops and some tower computers. In this case you may think it have something to do with the cache on the terminal server then. If so, where is that cache? How can I empty it, is there a policy for that?

But still, it does not explain the laptops and the stationary computers.

The users profiles is stored on \\domain.int\dfs\profiles\

The replication topology is, as mentioned in the topic, ring topology. Would a other kind of topology be more reliable and faster? (Can not be to resource demanding)

Any response that may help me in my journey to solve the problem is most appreciated.

Hot tips would also be appreciated.

Thanks