Choose the Location of the Staging Directory

You can choose the location of the staging directory when you use the Distributed File System snap-in in Windows Server 2003 or the Windows XP Administration Tools pack to configure a replica set on Windows 2000. If you configure a replica set using the Distributed File System snap-in in Windows 2000 Server, the staging directory location is chosen automatically.

By default, all replica sets on the server use the same staging directory, and the staging directory space limit applies to all staging directories on the local server. When the staging directory is shared among multiple replica sets, any one replica set can cause the staging directory to reach 90% capacity, at which point FRS begins to delete the oldest staging files for any of the replica sets. (Or in the case of Windows 2000 SP2 or earlier, FRS stops replicating if the staging directory runs out of free space.)

To simplify staging directory management and any future recovery procedures, it is recommended that you configure replica sets in one of the following ways:

• Give each replica set its own staging directory, and place the staging directories on the same volume. This solution provides good recoverability while minimizing cost.
• Give each replica set its own staging directory, and put each staging directory on its own volume. This solution provides better recoverability, but at a higher cost.

For information about moving the staging directory, see article 291823, "How to Reset the File Replication Service Staging Folder to a Different Logical Drive" at http://support.microsoft.com/?id=291823.

Do not store the staging directory on a volume where NTFS disk quotas are enabled.