We have an application which backs up its self every hour by copying its data files to a backup folder on a local drive. Every hour it creates a new sub folder with a time stamp in its name and under that it copies all 62 data files that it uses. We use DFSR to replicate this folder to another server for Disaster Recovery. This has been working quite well for the most part.
I have recently noticed that every file does not necessarily change every hour. This is especially true on the weekends when not much is going on. In this case when the new backup is taken some files are identical to the files in a previous backup. It seems that even though the application is copying a new file to a new subdirectory the new file is not being replicated if it is unchanged from a file in a previous backup.
I realize that DFSR only replicates a file when the contents (or security or alternate data stream) of the file has been changed, but I would have thought that a new copy of a file in a new subdirectory would be replicated even if it happens to be identical to a file that was already replicated in another subdirectory.
Is what I am seeing actually expected behavior for DFSR and if so it there a way to change it so that the latest backup subdirectory always has a complete set of files even though a file in a previous backup set may be identical?
Thank you,