Distributed File System Replication (DFSR)

Distributed File System Replication (DFSR) is a replication engine that organizations can use to synchronize folders for servers on network connections that have a limited bandwidth.

Available in Windows Server 2008 R2 and later, it acts as a replacement for the DFS Namespaces replication engine, Microsoft says. It is also a replacement for replicating the SYSVOL folder in Active Directory Domain Services for domains using the functional level of Windows Server 2008.

DFSR works by using an algorithm called remote differential compression, which can detect changes to a file's data and enable DFSR to replicate only these changed files.

Organizations must create groups for replication and include folders that have been replicated to use DFSR. Organizations can also manage DFSR by three different means: DFS Management, any scripts that call for WMI and the DfsrAdmin and Dfsrdiag PowerShell cmdlets.