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Questions tagged [dfs]

Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS) is a technology that complements the SMB/CIFS based file server role of Windows Servers.

DFS is comprised of DFSN (namespaces) and DFSR (replication). The two technologies can be implemented independently. However, the components are complementary when used together on Windows file servers.

DFSN allows creating "fake" namespaces or paths which when browsed, redirect the client to an alternate location as configured by an administrator. This allows creating a namespace which can apparently merge content which maybe spread across different file servers. DFSR allows creating multiple replicas of the content which thereby allow a level of resiliency. In the older versions of DFS (first introduced in Windows 2000 Server), the replication was handled by FRS (File Replication Service).

http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2009/12/30/windows-server-dfs-namespaces-reference.aspx provides good details related to DFSN.

See the DFSR tag for more details on DFSR.

361 questions
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DFS-R + Volume Shadow Services - Run VSS at all locations or one?

I have 4 servers, one at each office location, each sharing read/write copies of 1.5TB of data. Changes are replicated 24/7 between all 4 servers via DFS-R. All servers run Windows 2008 R2. I'm interested in implementing VSS (Volume Shadow…
pbristow
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DFS: Error creating domain-based namespace "The namespace cannot be queried. The RPC server is unavailable."

I try to create a domain-based namespace but when I hit "next" on the "choose type wizard page" I get the message: The namespace cannot be queried. The RPC server is unavailable. I found one article regarding this problem, and indeed the DNS…
Scolytus
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How to have different Group Policy at different sites map user's Redirected Folders on SBS 2008?

I have a DFS setup between my two locations and there are a few employees that move between them. Can I have a GPO at each location that changes their Redirected Folders to the local server? I have the contents of the folders replicated. Server1:…
Travis
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Windows 2003 - DFS not replicating all the files?

Is there a way to force DFS replication to happen? I've added another share to an existing DFS link, and it's 24 hours later, and the 2 folders are not in sync! The newly added share has only about 30% of the files there. I could have manually…
Mister IT Guru
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DFS honing to wrong DFS server

I am not incredibly familiar with how DFS works, but I know that we have an ongoing problem where I work. We have several DFS servers, each at a different branch is different locations. Sometimes when a user turns on their computer the DFS it…
Jason
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How to replicate wwwroot over multiple IIS web servers with NLB without NAS?

We're adding a second server with Windows NLB for a bit of redundancy (ie the power goes on one of the servers - I know its not the best solution). How can we keep the data identical between the servers? Dont want to use a SAN or NAS as thats just…
Igor K
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Replicate Server 2003 DFS root to Server 2008

I am trying to get a Windows Server 2003 (not R2) DFS root to replicate to Server 2008 Standard. My research so far suggests that adding the File Replication Service role service in the File Services role on Server 2008 should allow DFS replication…
tomfanning
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Why cannot I map an DSF/SMB share using New-SmbGlobalMapping?

I've got a DFS folder: \\my.domain\Storage$ I'd like to map it to a particular Windows Server Core machine using the New-SmbGlobalMapping PowerShell command using specific credentials. Alas, when I attempt to do so I get a The network name cannot be…
MBender
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how to properly remove DFS Replication without data loss

I am not going to use the DFS replication any more. All of the servers are virtual and running Server 2012R2. We have about 40TB data. Also There are 5 volumes. BTW , But those shares will run. already users will access them. My file server will…
Cell-o
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Use DFS to replicate file shares to two new servers?

Trying to find the best way to migrate file shares on one server we are deprecating to a new server. We will then use dfs from this new server to replicate with another new machine for our final setup. I thought I’d just use dfs to replicate from…
Braden
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DFS Replication server role and Remote Differential Compression feature

In Microsoft documentation about DFS Replication is written that DFS Replication uses Remote Differential Compression algorithm for efficient data replication. But when you install the DFS Replication, there is still an uninstalled Remote…
Zoran Jankov
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GPO to set DFS Path to Active in Referral List for mapped drive

I have a DFS Namespace of domain.lcl\DFS that replicates a folder ReplFolder across 3 geographically dispersed servers: \\VANCOUVER\FolderA \\MADRID\FolderA \\TOKYO\FolderA I can manually map a drive to \\domain.lcl\DFS\ReplFolder and it works…
user89023842234
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File permission issue - You need permission to perform this action

This is a very strange issue related to a dfs replicated folder. The share in question is shared with "Everyone" with full access and permissions are applied to sub-folders using ACLs. Three groups are applied to each folder (Full access to a file…
Stephen Powers
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Domain-Based DFS Working Intermittently

I have DFS setup on my network as follows: A domain we'll call DOMAIN.LAN. Two AD controllers, let's call them DC01 and DC02. Two file servers, let's call them FS01 and FS02. A Windows 10 Pro workstation joined to the domain. On the file servers,…
Nick Coons
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Win 2019 DFS Replication not working across WAN / VPN, no errors

I have a problem with DFS Replication. I've had replication at our main site working between two member servers for a while, but when I recently added a new site with a server, I ran into a lot of problems with disconnected topologies and syncing…
Thorkull
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