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npc_caseymFlag for United States of America

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DFS Namespace issue with domain alias vs full domain name

The issue is that for some users, when they login, their H:\ drive is not mapping.  It is supposed to map to \\mydomain\files\home$\user and we do that in the users' AD account.  I thought maybe we need to point it to \\mydomain.com instead of just "mydomain"…but that’s where I’m seeing some weirdness…

When I test it from my computers, I’m seeing very strange results.  From one of my DFS namespace servers, if I go to \\mydomain.com\files (FQDN namespace), I see all of the folders under the namespace just fine.  If I go to the domain alias from the same server (\\mydomain\files), same result...I see all of the folders under the namespace just fine.  

However, when I go to the FQDN namespace (\\mydomain.com\files) from my domain PC (which is a VM running on an ESXi host), I see all of the namespace folders EXCEPT for one, which is the Home$ folder.  If I go to the alias namespace from the same computer (\\mydomain\files), I see all of the folders including Home$ just fine.  What is the issue?  What should we be using when accessing the DFS path...the fully qualified domain path or the alias or should it be seamless?

DFS is running on Server 2008 R2 servers.
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Mahesh
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Ideally it should not make any difference
You should be able to get same results when accessing dfs with \\domain\files OR \\domain.com\files

Please check if Home$ dfs folder is replicated to all name space servers under C:\DFSRoot folder
If home$ is not replicated to any name space server, then it will not show up when \\domain.com\files OR \\domain\files resolves to that particular server

In that case you need to delete home$ dfs folder and try recreating it and ensure that it is getting replicated to all name space servers
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ASKER

Thanks for the response.  Here's what I'm seeing now.  I have 6 namespace servers listed.  On 3 of them, I can access the namespace share and all folders show up both when accessing via \\servername\files and \\servername.mydomain.com\files.  On the other 3 servers, I'm seeing all of the files when I go to \\servername\files but I'm missing the Home$ folder when I go to \\servername.newpig.com\files.  So for example, I can see Home$ fine via \\server1\files but not seeing it when I go to \\server1.newpig.com\files.

This is really strange.  Any other ideas?  I've ran a full replication on my domain but it will not complete because one of my DC's in a remote location (Holland, Netherlands) is down...this server really has nothing to do with DFS.
U have missing only home$ folder, right?
are you able to locate rest of the folders?
@Mahesh

Yes that's correct...all other folders are showing up.
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npc_caseym
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I found the fix for this on my own.