Condense multiple file servers into DFS system
I am needing to migrate several file servers (some 2003, some 2008) onto a single DFS server. I'm trying to understand the DFS root consolidation wizard and file server migration wizard to make this possible. Between the 5 file servers there are approximately 21 shares and 130GB of data.
The end goal is that I can decommission these physical file servers and everything automatically use the new file server. Between users and some very old software there are easily more than 1200 links to these existing shares. We will be getting rid of this towards the end of the year, but 2 particular file servers are well beyond EOL and need to be taken out of the mix so we want to get this project done now. I'm just looking for some good step by step solutions for this kind of situation to keep all the UNC paths the same (such as for active directory mapping user shares).
T-FS1 is the DFS server, and is ready to have DFS namespaces added (DFS root at E:\DFSRoots).
B-FS1 with one set of AD user shares (apprimately 200 users) and 2 pieces of software's shares
B-FS2 with 1 share and the other set of AD users
B-FS3 with 6 shares for software
So as one example AD has one set of users being mapped at \\B-FS1\THSC\Files and this share would need to work once moved over to T-FS1.
Thanks for any help!
The end goal is that I can decommission these physical file servers and everything automatically use the new file server. Between users and some very old software there are easily more than 1200 links to these existing shares. We will be getting rid of this towards the end of the year, but 2 particular file servers are well beyond EOL and need to be taken out of the mix so we want to get this project done now. I'm just looking for some good step by step solutions for this kind of situation to keep all the UNC paths the same (such as for active directory mapping user shares).
T-FS1 is the DFS server, and is ready to have DFS namespaces added (DFS root at E:\DFSRoots).
B-FS1 with one set of AD user shares (apprimately 200 users) and 2 pieces of software's shares
B-FS2 with 1 share and the other set of AD users
B-FS3 with 6 shares for software
So as one example AD has one set of users being mapped at \\B-FS1\THSC\Files and this share would need to work once moved over to T-FS1.
Thanks for any help!
Can you explain how to use the vm's in this case. We are trying to move 400+ shares from Polyserve to a windows 2012 cluster and we need to keep the old UNC paths if possible. We have 20 or so vitual server names we currently in polyserve like \\servername\ And then the user gets dumped into the listing of all the shares. DFS won;t seem to do this for us and we need to be able to have some shares remoain on polyserve during our migration to 2012.
Thank you
Thank you
create a VM that has the correct servername.domainname create a share on the vm that is the same as the existing share and copy the existing share files to it then disconnect the existing server... test it.. go onto the next servers shares and repeat the procedure.. I am not conversant with polyserve (hp storageworks).. It is going to be a long drawn out procedure.. not one that can be done overnight. For a period of time you will be using double the storage so you can quickly go back if something fails.
maybe in dns using cnames is a better idea .. map multiple cnames to 1 server
maybe in dns using cnames is a better idea .. map multiple cnames to 1 server
Thank You for the explaination. That would be quite an undertaking with 440 shares and the number of VM's we would need to solve our naming problem. Our main problem is that currently we are using \\servername\sharename. We want to use dfs with 2012 but it looks like we would need to do \\servername\dfsnamespacen
with 2012 DFS?
Thank You
with 2012 DFS?
Thank You
You unfortunately got hit with the seven p's.. no matter what you do you are going to be a disruptive influence.
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This is the solution to the problem, allowing users to maintain the same UNC path when consolidating file servers.
HI Heymrdj, I've done exactly that in testing however your forgetting about the 20 virtual file server names that we have currently pointig to the file shares. I need tobe able to access all the shares using any of these server names. This is how Polyserve does it and we have a mess.
Even when I consolidate and have the old unc pointing to the new file server(s) I still need to be able to change the 20 names to point to the new shares also. I've tried aliasing to the consolidated namespace... Any ideas?
Thank you
Even when I consolidate and have the old unc pointing to the new file server(s) I still need to be able to change the 20 names to point to the new shares also. I've tried aliasing to the consolidated namespace... Any ideas?
Thank you
Are there 2 separate people asking for help here.. mhkin and Heymrdj (originator) ?? Still think you could use cnames in DNS to consolidate the many file servers to 1 file server. simply replace the A record (old location) with a Cname Record (new location).. The tool Microsoft File Server Migration Toolkit is good to know about.. Thanks Heymrdj
I don't think this is possible. \\servername\sharename even with \\servername.domain.corp\s
You'd have to go through group policy and replace the older names with the new name. This will break some apps that do use \\servername\sharename
All you can do is make a bunch of vm's for these shares (not really a recommended solution) that have the right servername