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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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Strange path in sysvol replication

On our 2008 R2 domain, I have a strange entry in the list of folder replica. \\?\C:\Windows\SYSVOL\domain dc1 Enabled SYSVOL Share C:\Windows\SYSVOL\domain dc2 Enabled SYSVOL Share C:\Windows\SYSVOL\domain …
Stephen Woolhead
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DFS Using Domain Alias

Client has SuperVeryExtraLong.com AD domain so a DFS namespace becomes \\SuperVeryExtraLong.com\foo with a minimum of 29 characters. This is a problem with the 255 character path limit. Is there a way to create a domain alias that can be used by…
Ed Fries
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Server Permissions conundrum

I'm trying to set permissions on particular folders within our domain (Windows 2003). NTFS permissions are set on the folder, to enable a certain group, call them Helpdesk, to change permissions. Domain Admins have permission already. Access to…
Jonathan Houston
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DFS - Destination Folder Access Denied

I have recently setup two Windows servers. One server provides AD and DNS services and the second acts as a fileserver using DFS. When setting up DFS, I chose to use Stand-alone namespaces and did not implement replication as I only want these files…
cmorris14
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How to move Redirected Folders with Offline Files from UNC to DFS share

We want to move to a new file server. We are using Folder Redirection and Offline Files. I figured it would be best if we moved from a straight UNC path to a DFS name path as we have multiple file servers in our network and it would be nice to see…
kputzlocher
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DFS share empty when accessing it via domain name

I set up a DFS to centralise my shares. After doing so, I noticed, that I can access the shares via the domain path (\\SNAKEOIL.LOCAL\Research), but the folders is shown as empty. The intended namespace \\SNAKEOIL.LOCAL\Public is working as…
Daniel
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User suddenly don't see correct DFS share on some servers

Setup: 2 Windows 2008 R2 DC also holding DFS shares, replication works fine. Suddenly my user (is administrator too) got the wrong/empty redirected desktop etc. I only see the local C:\users\public desktop / default profile. If I create a new folder…
kimr-dk
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Simulate a DFS share for a user not on domain with a folder in path

I have a consultant whose computer is not on the domain and needs to access various network resources. Unfortunately while adding a computer to the domain is a difficult bureaucratic process (and would disallow much of his development software from…
user223655
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Can we disable DFS on Windows SBS 2011?

The supplier of our customer's ERP system says that their software gets performance problems when running on a server with DFS enabled. I notice that DFS Namespace and DFS Replication is enabled on the server. Can we disble those services to test if…
Tobias
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Srv2K3R2 to Srv2K8R2 migration redirected folders with user exclusive rights robocopy access issue

Trying to migrate users My Documents and Desktop redirected folders where the users have exclusive rights to the folders. Using Robocopy with /e and /copyall attributes running as domain admin. Access is denied. This is from Server 2003 to Server…
Dean
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Does windows DFS (DFSR) resume a partial transfer if a WAN link is lost?

Q: Does windows DFS (DFSR) resume a partial transfer if a WAN link is lost? This seems like an obvious "yes" but, hoping someone here can provide a definitive answer. Background The environment consists of two geographically separate networks…
Lucas
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Shared Excel WorkBook is locked by another user

I’ve been trying everything; this is the last chance I have. I moved folders and files from an old Windows Server 2003 File Server to a new FS (Win Server 2008 R2) with DFS and ABE enabled. Now, a specific Shared Excel file is driving me crazy, out…
Something
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Sharing storage between DFS nodes providing failover without failover manager

I'm currently consulting for a small engineering firm that has been using a single server for all their domain needs and their management has got sick of not being able to access networked shares from the server when the ageing hardware fails I've…
Brad Morris
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Microsoft DFSR: VersionVectorTombstone backlogged for some DFSR Spokes

When have a DFSR "hub and spoke" setup for a replicated folder. The permissions were set on the folder so no end users could modify the contents. To my surprise, when running a health report on the hub, I found a few spokes had a single outbound…
red888
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DFS Nameserver is broke

Our RAID array which housed the File server VMDK is no more. This was a Windows Server 2003 install which was the file server and contained the DFS Namespaces. The RAID array with all the files is intact and the data is working fine. We have created…
Ross
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