Folder Redirection and DFS Root?

[gshaw]

Very quick question, we'd like to move our Documents redirected folders into DFS but have a query around the namespace path.

 

If I create a namespace called "Home" and have the documents stored on a different server am I correct in understanding my path may have to end up being...

 

\\domain.tld\Home\Students\auser\Documents

 

Where "Home" is the name of the DFS namspace and

Where "Students" is the label for the linked server UNC path actually hosting the files e.g. \\fileserver\studenthome$

 

I've seen other examples where people are storing the user directories within the DFS Root i.e. \\domain.tld\Home\auser but that suggests they're storing files directly in the DFS Root, which I thought was against best practice?

 

I'm guessing it would also make the files more difficult to migrate later on as the whole DFS Root storage would have to move servers and then modify DFS settings for that particular server, rather than simply moving a Folder Target?

[Steve21]

\\XYZ.sch.uk\dfs is our root, then we have the individual shares below it. (Root has nothing but the shares)

 

So \\XYZ.sch.uk\dfs\StudentDocuments\10JimJim \\XYZ.sch.uk\dfs\StaffDocuments\ABC etc

 

Steve

[imullings]

We have just migrated to dfs servers for all our documents and files. We have setup

\\DOMIIN\data\users\work\%username% for all users.

This is load balanced across 3 servers for performance and if we loose one or even 2 servers it still keeps going (With replication)

The down side is we have to have 3 copies of ALL the user data.

[gshaw]

\\XYZ.sch.uk\dfs is our root, then we have the individual shares below it. (Root has nothing but the shares)

 

So \\XYZ.sch.uk\dfs\StudentDocuments\10JimJim \\XYZ.sch.uk\dfs\StaffDocuments\ABC etc

 

Steve

 

Sounds the same as what I'm aiming for, have you hit any problems with file path lengths at all? Just thinking the path to a Document could end up being:

 

\\XYZ.sch.uk\dfs\StudentDocuments\10JimJim\Documents\AFolderWithaLongName\DocumentName.docx

 

That's around 90 characters just to begin with. Maybe not such a problem on redirected Documents as shared drives where the real horrors are path length-wise for us

[Steve21]

\\XYZ.sch.uk\dfs\StudentDocuments\10JimJim\Documents\AFolderWithaLongName\DocumentName.docx

 

That's around 90 characters just to begin with.

 

Nope That path is 41 (N:\AFolderWithaLongName\DocumentName.docx) as it's the mapped local path to the client that's restricted, remember it isn't the server that has the issue with the lengths. (Unless I've missed something, but would be easy enough to test the theory)

 

So unless they add another 200 chars/folders to it that's their issue and no different to storing locally on a C drive etc.

 

Steve

Edited August 15, 2016 by Steve21

[gshaw]

Depends how the file is opened and the API the program in question is using from since testing we've done recently.

 

Think we've managed to find a few with a path length of 450+ on the shared drives bit hopefully not on the homes!

Edited August 15, 2016 by gshaw

[Steve21]

Depends how the file is opened and the API the program in question is using from since testing we've done recently.

 

Think we've managed to find a few with a path length of 450+ on the shared drives bit hopefully not on the homes!

 

Aye but then they wouldn't open even on a normal share, so it's not really a dfs issue as such is what I meant But aye, obviously might be some issues like that. But only way around that is Windows 10

 

Steve