Quick question regarding setting up DFS
My company has one file server (Windows 2000) and two domain controllers (Windows 2003 - standard) and I have been asked to setup DFS. Our file server contains two main shares which all employees in our company use. This same file server went down because of a hardware failure about one month ago and all of our users were unable to access their important files for several hours which caused a lot of problems. Thus, my director has asked me to look into DFS and implement it so we can avoid this problem in the future with our current setup.
This is what I did on the file server (2000):
1. Launched DFS
2. chose domain root and not stand-alone
3. chose our domain
4. selected the host server (DC1 – domain controller)
5. setup a new dfs root path and share name
6. at final summary screen, hit finish and received the following error:
The following error occurred while creating Dfs root on server (DC server name). The network request is not supported.
Why did I receive this error message?
Second, have I approached the setup of DFS correctly? My thoughts were that is the file server went down, this new DFS root would hold a copy or replica of the shares that all our users could access for the time being, w/o being aware that something has happened in the background. Then, when we brought back up the file server, any changes would be updated with the original shares.
Could you explain to me if I am right or wrong in my interpretation of DFS and the setup procedure? I am new to this and thought I understood it well from just the reading, but I
Obviously have a lot more work to do. I would truly appreciate any help or guidance you could offer. Thank in advance!
This is what I did on the file server (2000):
1. Launched DFS
2. chose domain root and not stand-alone
3. chose our domain
4. selected the host server (DC1 – domain controller)
5. setup a new dfs root path and share name
6. at final summary screen, hit finish and received the following error:
The following error occurred while creating Dfs root on server (DC server name). The network request is not supported.
Why did I receive this error message?
Second, have I approached the setup of DFS correctly? My thoughts were that is the file server went down, this new DFS root would hold a copy or replica of the shares that all our users could access for the time being, w/o being aware that something has happened in the background. Then, when we brought back up the file server, any changes would be updated with the original shares.
Could you explain to me if I am right or wrong in my interpretation of DFS and the setup procedure? I am new to this and thought I understood it well from just the reading, but I
Obviously have a lot more work to do. I would truly appreciate any help or guidance you could offer. Thank in advance!
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http://www.microsoft.com//WindowsServer2003/technologies/fileandprint/file/dfs/default.mspx
Download the documentation guide and read over chapter 2 for design and project planning advice.
I believe you're understanding the concept correctly - we use DFS to provide for always on/always accessible resources. However, your domain controller won't host copies of data, just of certain DFS structures - in the case of a 2003 server - it will hold that in the registry. The actual file server data and folder mappings will be replicated to the other physical file servers - you can adjust the replication between sites and what not - that will take some tweaking.
Per Microsoft -
"When deciding whether to host a DFS root on a domain controller, consider the following factors:
Only members of the Domain Admins group can manage a DFS namespace hosted on a domain controller.
If you plan to use a domain controller to host a DFS root, the server hardware must be sized to handle the additional load. As described in the previous question, root servers that host large or multiple namespaces require additional memory."
I'll see if I can emulate your failure in my lab - any other details (specific error numbers, etc)