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Forum FAQ: What’s the difference between BranchCache and DFSR?

Discussion Forum FAQ: What’s the difference between BranchCache and DFSR?

  • Monday, February 22, 2010 8:13 AM
     
     
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    Question

     

    BranchCache and DFSR are two technologies which are very helpful in branch office scenario. What’s the difference between BranchCache and DFSR? What are the advantage of choosing on technology over the other?

     

    Answer

    For your reference, here is the side-by-side comparison of BranchCache and DFSR:

     

     

     

    BranchCache

    DFSR

    Hardware infrastructure required

    None, if running in Distributed Cache Mode

    Need file server in branch office

    Types of data cached

    SMB2, HTTP, HTTPS

    SMB1 and SMB2

    What drives caching

    User reading data brings data into cache

    Administrator defines data set to be replicated and replication schedule

    Cache lifetime

    “Least recently used” data is evicted from the cache when under disk pressure. Otherwise, data not accessed in 28 days is aged out

    Data never expires

    File version seen by clients

    Clients get latest content from central server

    Clients see version of content that has been replicated to branch

    When do branch modifications get back to central server

    Modifications go directly to central server (over WAN) as the client makes the modification

    Modifications are stored in branch replica and replicated back to central server based on admin configured replication schedule

    Resilient to WAN outage

    No

    Yes

     

     

     

     

    BranchCache

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/dd425028.aspx

     

    DFSR FAQs

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773238(WS.10).aspx

     

    Applies to

     

    Windows Server 2008 R2

     

    For more information about DFSR and BranchCache, please refer to the following links: