DFS Replication Connections Test

The replication topology consists of the logical connections that DFS Replication uses to replicate files among servers. Members in a replication topology communicate via two one-way connections. These two connections allow data to flow in both directions.

Where replication activities consume considerable bandwidth, administrators may want to quickly identify the bandwidth-intensive replication connections, determine how much bandwidth is currently saved by these connections by compressing the traffic, and decipher how the compression algorithm can be tweaked to conserve more bandwidth. This is exactly what the DFS Replication Connections test does. This test monitors each replication connection to a namespace server and reports the throughput and bandwidth savings of each connection, so that administrators can identify those connections that could be candidates for additional traffic compression.

Target of the test : A server that hosts the DFS namespace  (this can even be a server that contains the Dfs root or a replica of it)

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each replication connection to the namespace server monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameters	Description
Test period	This indicates how often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Port	The port at which the specified host listens to.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Total files received	Indicates the number of files received on this connection during the last measurement period.	Number	Compare the value of this measure across connections to know which connection receives the maximum number of files.
Total data received	Indicates the total number of bytes received on this connection during the last measurement period.	MB	Compare the value of this measure across connections to know which connection receives the maximum data.
RDC data received	Indicates the bytes that were received on this connection while replicating files using remote differential compression during the last measurement period.	MB	This is the  actual bytes received over the network without the networking protocol overhead. By comparing the value of this measure with that of the Total data received measure for a connection, administrators can determine whether/not data compression has improved throughtput and reduced bandwidth consumption of that connection.
Bandwidth savings using DFS replication	Indicates the percentage of bandwidth that was saved by the DFS Replication service.	Percent	This measure indicates how much bandwidth was saved for this connection using a  combination of remote differential compression (RDC) and other compression technologies that minimize network bandwidth use. For example, a value of 20  indicates that the DFS Replication service used 20% less bandwidth than it would have used if it had transmitted the entire files uncompressed over the  network. By comparing the value of this measure across connections, administrators can identify that connection which has saved the least bandwidth. For such connections, the compression technologies employed may have to be tweaked further to ensure optimal bandwidth usage.