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Windows DFS deleting AutoCAD DWG

19 REPLIES 19
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Message 1 of 20
plansbergen
5193 Views, 19 Replies

Windows DFS deleting AutoCAD DWG

For several years we have been sharing our AutoCAD files between multiple offices using Windows Distributed File System (DFS) on Windows 2008 servers.  We haven't had any problems with it until we added a Windows 2012 server.  The initial sync went fine and all files were copied but recently we have noticed that after saving in AutoCAD to the DFS the DWG file will disappear.  This doesn't happen with any other files or programs.

If we check the ConflictandDeleted folder on the Windows 2012 server we find the disappeared DWG file everytime

 

We have people using AutoCAD versions 2009 through 2014 but have specifically noticed the problem with people using versions 2011 and 2013.

 

Any ideas as to what may be causing this and what we can do to fix it?  Some people have mentioned it may be our Staging Folder size for the DFS but the size is currently set to 49GB, much more then we ever use..  

19 REPLIES 19
Message 2 of 20
mannekung
in reply to: plansbergen

Hi!

Experiencing the exact samt issues. Did you solve yours?

Message 3 of 20
plansbergen
in reply to: mannekung

No, we have implemented some custom scripts to quickly recover the lost files but we've found no way to stop them from deleting.
Message 4 of 20
mannekung
in reply to: plansbergen

Interesting. 

 

I've realized that it probably has to to with the pretty annoying system through which AutoCAD is making backup files.

 

Have you tried to remove the filtering on the DFS-share - so that *.tmp, *.bak and other file types all get replicated. We are trying that now. Might be working...

Message 5 of 20
mbohn
in reply to: mannekung

Has removing the filtering of *.bak and *.tmp files resolved the problem?  I have been struggling with this problem for the past year.

 

Mark

 

Message 6 of 20
mannekung
in reply to: mbohn

Sorry, no. Didn't make a difference.

 

I've though realized that DFS not is a supported option by Autodesk.

 

Autodesk must really be the company with the most crappy development policy on the planet. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO FOCUS ON POINTLESS FEATURES LIKE A NEW GUI when basic features like DFS support not is fixed yet? It's been here for more than 6 years now!

Message 7 of 20
n.moroniti
in reply to: mannekung

We have run into the same issue after introducing a 2012 server into a mixed 2008 R2 DFSR environment. We've only recognized it happening when DWG files were changed on a 2012 server that did not have a direct replication connection to a 2008 R2 server in its own site. 

 

For example, 

SiteA = 2008R2 and 2012

SiteB = 2008R2 and 2012

SiteC = 2012

 

All servers had direct replication connections (incoming and outgoing) with 1 exception: 2012 in SiteC and 2008R2 in SiteB had no connections.

 

We only saw the issue when DWG files were changed on 2012 in SiteC. The following was discoverd from the 4412 events:

File changed on 2012 SiteC;

Replicated to 2012 in SiteB;

Conflict between 2008R2 and 2012 servers in SiteB and 2008R2 (older file) wins;

Next, conflict between 2012 in SiteB and 2012 in SiteC (original save location);

The file was then missing from all servers in all sites, except the 2008R2 server in SiteB (which seemed to win out with the unchanged version.)

 

We have since (last week), removed both 2008R2 servers from the replication mesh and only have a 2012 server in each Site now. Undetermined yet if the issue still exists.

 

 

Message 8 of 20
plansbergen
in reply to: n.moroniti

We went the other way and removed all 2012 servers from our DFS structure.  We have not experienced any problems and are now running strictly 2008 R2 servers.

Hopefully AutoDesk will sort this out before we need to move everyone to 2012 servers.

Message 9 of 20
DiazA
in reply to: plansbergen

The issue is caused by the SMB version on the servers and workstations. Having a mixed OSes might be creating issues when negotiating the connection. Check these articles:

http://blog.microsolresources.com/2013/01/29/autocad-files-that-delete-themselves/

http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2013/10/02/windows-server-2012-r2-which-version-of-the-sm...

 

Alex

 

Message 10 of 20
jggerth1
in reply to: DiazA

Great information!  thanks for posting it

Message 11 of 20
chanley
in reply to: DiazA

Has anyone succesfully "downgraded" an SMB version using the article listed above and did it resolve the "disappearing" file issue?  I am considering attempting to downgrad our 2012 server SMB version as a last resort before upgrading a server OS.  We see this issue frequently between our 2 offices.  Is there any better solution to DFSR for replicating between offices?

 

We have 2 servers in a replication group, one 2008 R2 and one 2012 Storage Server.

2008 R2 is using SMB 2.1

2012 is using SMB 3.0

 

Message 12 of 20
arlesterc
in reply to: jggerth1

Didn't see any followup. Did this work?

Message 13 of 20
kmhuglen
in reply to: arlesterc

I have a client facing the same problems. I have started troubleshooting, and if I find a solution, I will post it on my blog. For now, I have created a simple PowerShell GUI for easy restore of deleted files from the ConflictAndDeleted folder. https://itblog.no/5800

 

Have anyone found a permanent solution to this problem? (Except forcing the use of SMB1 and/or downgrading to Windows Server 2008 R2)

Message 14 of 20
srgriff
in reply to: n.moroniti

Did going to all Server 2012 servers fix this issue?
Message 15 of 20
kmhuglen
in reply to: srgriff

Well I actually did not go that way. I got the same result in a lab with all DFS servers on same OS Level. The reason seems to be the size and the way AutoCAD saves files that gives DFSr problems while multiple users can access the file. I talked to Peer Software about the problem as they had several products that should be able to fix the problem. I briefly tested their Trial version of PeerLock for Microsoft DFS and it seem to fix the problem in my Lab environment. But as Peer Software would not recommend that product for our use (high latency and unstable VPN connection to other location), we did not go forward with that solution. Peer Software had another product PeerLink that would be fit our requirement, but my client decided to go another way.
Message 16 of 20
ChadBalser
in reply to: kmhuglen

We are seeing the same issue.  And I suspected that AutoCAD and the latest 2012 versions of DFS are to blame.  I looked in the DFS Replication Debug log, and you can see that when a user saves a CAD file, it first deletes the BAK file, then renames the DWG file to BAK, then saves the DWG file.  This happens close to the same time (the log file shows less than a tenth of a second.)  It appears these rapid file changes are too much for how DFS handles file change synchronization.  Unfortunately we are seeing that once it happens on one file, it continues to happen to that file. It is not predictable yet, and has happend on DWG files of varying sizes and makeup. 

 

We currently have 2008, 2008R2, 2012, and 2012R2.  I do not want to down grade any servers, so my choice is to replace replication with another solution.  We are reseaching Peerlink to replace DFS, but are looking to see who else has done this and if anyone chose a different route for replication.

 

Thanks for any input.

Message 17 of 20
n.moroniti
in reply to: ChadBalser

We had a mix of 2008R2 and 2012. The problem started when we introdcued the 2012 servers. We have since removed the 2008R2 servers and now have all 2012 servers. When we did this the issue resolved. Having all the servers on the same OS version and therefore the same version of SMB seems to be the key. We have not had the issues for several months.

Message 18 of 20
ChadBalser
in reply to: n.moroniti

We did go with PEERLINK - it has been a wonderful solution.  The ability to trackdown exactly what is currently going on with replication,and report back to a user with a solution has been wonderful.  Alerts, Conflict resolution, and file locking is exactly what we needed.  I rarely have to deal with any replication issues any more.  It was obviously quite a bit more expensive than the free DFS solution, but now that i have seen it in place for 6+ months, it is worth it.  We have a single 3TB share repliced between four offices that took less than a day to get in sync.  I have replaced/upgraded servers and re-synced that same share in one location in hours.  DFS would take a week.  With DFS I would have to rely on users telling me that there was a problem because DFS reporting would say there was no issue, until you restarted the DFS service.  PEERLINK is emailing me regularly on any hicups.  I can't say enough about it.  It was a great fit for our situation.

Message 19 of 20
kmhuglen
in reply to: plansbergen

Thanks for sharing your experience. Actually looking into PeerLink again. they are going to setup a PoC in our environment. And with your feedback it looks promising.
Message 20 of 20
weserT3GNE
in reply to: kmhuglen

Hi everybody.

 

Using DFSR pretty heavily in our Office we faced the same problems about not knowing what was going on "under the hood" of DFSR.

 

I ended up creating a Powershell script running as Scheduled Task that checked all 5 minutes the eventlog on the DSFR Server and send a mail depending on "DFSR down", "File unable to replicate" or "Multiple Files" and attaching as well open SMB connections at the time of the report and the DFSR Queue at the time of the report as well. If this is done from DFSR Location A Server and DFSR Location B Server we ended up having a pretty clear picture what happened.

 

This was enough for us. Maybe helps somebody else. Please note that this works for us, but might not be super efficient as I am not strong in Powershell.

 

Parts of the code was anonymized.

 

#################
#Check for Communication Error
#################
#
$Event5002 = (Get-EventLog -LogName "DFS Replication" -After (Get-Date).AddMinutes(-5) -Message "*Error: 9032*" | Where-Object {$_.EventID -eq 5002} | Select-Object EventID,TimeGenerated,Message) | Format-List | Out-String
Get-DfsrMembership | Out-File -Filepath C:\DFSReports\DFSRMembership.txt -Width 300
Send-MailMessage -From DFSR-Error@yourdomain.com -To whoevershouldgetmail@yourdomain.com -SmtpServer yoursmtpserver.yourdomain.com -Subject "DFSR-Error@YourSHARE - DFSR-Communication Error" -Body $Event5002 -Attachments "C:\DFSReports\DFSRMembership.txt"
#

#################
#Project-DFSR
#################
#
$Event415_4412 = (Get-EventLog -LogName "DFS Replication" -After (Get-Date).AddMinutes(-5) -Message "*YourShare\YourProject*" | Where-Object {$_.EventID -eq 4412} | Select-Object EventID,TimeGenerated,Message) | Format-List | Out-String
$Event415_4302 = (Get-EventLog -LogName "DFS Replication" -After (Get-Date).AddMinutes(-5) -Message "*YourShare\YourProject*" | Where-Object {$_.EventID -eq 4302 -or $_.EventID -eq 4304} | Select-Object EventID,TimeGenerated,Message) | Format-List | Out-String
#Get Open File List > File to attach in Mail
Get-SMBopenfile | Where-Object -Property Path -like "*\YourShare\YourProject*" | Sort-Object Path | Select-Object Path,ClientComputerName,ClientUserName | Format-Table -AutoSize | Out-File -Filepath C:\DFSReports\OpenFiles.txt -Width 300
#Get DFSR Queue State for the Project to attach in Mail
Get-DfsrState -ComputerName YourServer | Where-Object {$_.Path -like '*YourShare\YourProject*'} | Format-Table Path,updatestate,inbound,source* -auto -wrap | Out-File -Filepath C:\DFSReports\DFSRQueue.txt -Width 300
#Put together Mail and send to Data Responsible
Send-MailMessage -From DFSReport@YourDomain.com -To Project-DFSR@YourDomain.com -SmtpServer YourSMTP.YourDomain.com -Subject "DFSReport@YourServer - Multiple Files - Winning and losing Files" -Body $Event415_4412 -Attachments "C:\DFSReports\OpenFiles.txt","C:\DFSReports\DFSRQueue.txt"
Send-MailMessage -From DFSReport@YourDomain.com -To Project-DFSR@YourDomain.com -SmtpServer YourSMTP.YourDomain.com -Subject "DFSReport@YourServer - Open File - Unable to replicate" -Body $Event415_4302 -Attachments "C:\DFSReports\OpenFiles.txt","C:\DFSReports\DFSRQueue.txt"

 

 

Best

 

Marcel

 

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