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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.

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IP Resolution of AD Domain, DFS and DNS/WINS lookup problem

Short story One day, on client computers, the remote DFS \\country1.company.com\company stopped working and \\country1.company.com keeps resolving to a local server IP. However, if the request is executed on the local server, the DFS resolves…
Jake
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DFS - Active Directory Namespace not showing

Appologies if this doesn't make sense - I'm just starting to play with DFS and some of the terms are still confusing to me. We have created a couple of DFS roots (as domain roots) on our domain and set up replication and all appears to be working…
Martin
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Migration from Distributed File System 2003 to 2008

I have two Windows Server 2003 and both have DFS and it does replication between them. I would like to migrate the primary win2k3 DFS server to win2k8. what is the best way to do that? I found this article: Migrate a Domain-based Namespace to…
miro23
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Clients connecting to wrong dfs share

I am having a lot of trouble with my clients connecting to the wrong dfs share, how do I ensure that clients only connect to the nearest dfs share. I have two file shares connected by a vpn connection and when the clients connect to the wrong share…
Simon Foster
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Replicate content across IIS farm, *not* on a domain

What's the best way of replicating web content across an IIS web farm where the servers are not on a domain? Most people seem to recommend DFS for this type of scenario, but I understand that relies on AD to work, and running a domain here is not an…
growse
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What is the importance of the .DFSFolderLink

I am currently building a new DFS namespace setup. My folder E:\CommonStuff\ is already shared on the fileserver. And now it is also shared as \DOMAIN\CommonStuff I got 3 questions: I see .DFSFolderLink records in all folders I create in the…
Swift
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Best option for DFS deployment

Initially, we placed the DFS function on the 2 domain controllers but the login times are getting longer/slower and the CPU/memory resources on the 2 domain controllers are almost flatline during peak hours where a lot of users are reading and…
FrancisV
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How does the DFS 'cache duration' setting work?

We have a large and complex multi-site DFS structure. I'm using DFS for an application that would be disrupted if any part of the structure was redirected out of site (although I'd rather it be disrupted than fail entirely). The path is something…
Alex
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DFS Migration from 2003 R2 to 2008 R2

In our environment we have 6 domain controllers. 2 of them are running 2003 R2 and we are in the process of decommissioning them. These servers are hosting our single namespace for \domain.com\DFS. We have no replication in place and these servers…
dhasek00
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Is it possible to configure DFS between trusted domains?

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…
Russ
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GPO cannot install software from DFS folder

I use GPO for install software from a file share. I want to change the file share to a DFS folder. I've made a DFS folder over this this share. I've changed the path in the GPO. When I restarted a PC I saw this message: "Event Type: Error Event…
flag
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How can I seperate old and new data storage, while making the data access seemless to the user?

First, I am open to suggestion on the title of this. Here is what I am looking for: I am rebuilding our file server because it’s dying, as well as space being poorly allocated. What I would like to be able to do, is store data accessed in the last…
Russ
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DFS replication initial step problem

I just setup DFS on my network and it's working fine, and now I'm trying to setup DFS-R on a test folder, but then at the end of the procedure (all went fine, selected my 2 folders, primary folder, replication topology and such) I get this error…
vn.
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Windows DFS File System Clustering

We're attempted to set up a high availability network for our file servers, and we're wanting to do a DFS file system cluster using the same back-end storage (our back-end storage has its own clustering mechanisms that it manages itself). The…
tearman
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dfs/cifs problems with kernel 4.18 (rhel8)

We have a rhel8 environment with several windows fileservers in dfs using cifs (auto)mounts. The mount is working when accessed, but when the cifs filesytems/mounts are in heavy use the cifs mount will hang the server intermitted. Only a…
Nico
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