Is it possible to configure DFS between trusted domains?

Question

Good day all, I have a situation where I am having a hard time finding any solid answers. My company recently acquired another company, and we need to have a lot of their data locally, while leaving it onsite for the old company to continue to work with for the foreseeable future.

I am currently suggesting that we make use of our existing DFS roots, and make sure of the replication abilities of DFS.

The servers in question are running either Windows 2003R2, 2008, 2008R2, so the newer DFS replication is an option. Remote = 2003R2 Local existing DFS = 2008 <--> 2008R2

The problem I face is that the two domains are only trusted, and do not share the same forest.

Is it possible to set up DFS replication in this situation, as well as a common DFS root, and if so, how can I accomplish this?

Solution

For Domain based DFS the answer is no. All root targets for a given domain-based DFS root must be in the same domain.

DFS clients periodically discover new domains in the local forest and in trusted forests. This discovery process, which occurs every 15 minutes by default, runs against a domain controller from the domain that hosts the client's computer account.

From the sound of it, it might be easier for you to create a robocopy script, or some 3rd party product like vise-versa, that will copy new/changed/updated files to the other domain and use your current DFS infrastructure to make those files available.