File and print redundancy

[BBrian]

I have DFS set up, replicating across two servers, but if one of the servers goes down (tested earlier today) the clients report the shares as offline. What do I need to do to have the client start using the other server?

 

I tried setting up print redundancy by installing the printers on both servers, both of which are domain controllers and DNS servers, sharing the printers as \\printers\printername then adding a cname entry to each server for printers pointing to itself. Once the server was offline, I couldn't print. I was hoping the server that was still online would serve itself as the DNS entry for \\printers and everything would run smoothly!

 

I guess in both cases I need to flush DNS for \\namespace.dfs\ and \\printers\ if they appear to be offline. How are other people achieving this?

Edited March 5, 2012 by BBrian

[FN-GM]

For the file share are you sure you are pointing to the domain namespace rather than the individual server?

[BBrian]

For the file share are you sure you are pointing to the domain namespace rather than the individual server?

 

I was. I did another test just now and it failed-over as it should. I'm not sure what happened earlier that it gave the network error.

[FN-GM]

I was. I did another test just now and it failed-over as it should. I'm not sure what happened earlier that it gave the network error.

 

Probably worth doing more testing. You dont want it to happen when your server dies in real life

[psydii]

If the DfS thing occours after further periodic testing try this: "An unexpected network error occurred" error message when you try to browse a DFS folder in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2.

 

You'll find it probably cures all sorts of problems you never really knew you had. (or it might ruin your systems <-just covering myself its LDR for a reason)

[TheScarfedOne]

With the printing - you would be better looking at Print Clustering, which is supported well in Server 2008 R2.