DFS newbie question

[maxrebo]

New NM job and inherited a setup with DFS setup between our two file servers - few questions - (we are a one site campus , previously 2 site campus so I presume that was the main reason why this was setup)

 

1. What is the main reason you would use DFS in a school? Is is backup

2. its used for our staff, pupil and user home folder shares - the name space is setup (\\domain\namespace) but I cannot actually view the home folder share on the servers ?

if I UNC into the share I can access it but when I visit the server hosting the share its not there (although the data on the drive resembles that it is?!)

is this the way it is with DFS, not having really ever used it im not familiar with the way it works

 

In previous job we didn't have dfs setup at all and never had any problems, im tempted to take it off and go for the usual \\server\users$ share

[synaesthesia]

It's sort of backup - resiliency more than anything. So, if one server dies, the other picks up and noone even notices. If you just run the shares, if one server dies, that's it, there's no access to them. If you have the ability, use it, have a play with it.

You can use shares on DFS namespaces just fine, just share them on one of the servers if it's for your convenience. Keeping users, shared drivers etc mapped to the namespace means you get that failover and less hassle for you.

[mjs_mjs]

In server roles there will be a link to the DFS management console which will show you which actual shares are effectivly ''rebranded' within your dfs namespace - have a watch of

and read docs connected to Create a Folder in a DFS Namespace

 

think of the DFS share as a 'virtual' share and folder structure - it probably wont exist as a single share in it's own rite on one server.

 

 

I found DFS to be really useful as i could map loads of different servers as one big 'share' to users (using security perms to restrict access) - i could also move a share from one servers hard drive to another servers hard drive - set up a new share, change the DFS entry and no user/application would be any different... THIS is why it is useful.

 

Before touching it (as it sounds like everything relies on it) - set up your own DFS on another server and play with it so you fully understand how and why it's used in your setup.