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Andy DiwaniyanFlag for New Zealand

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How do I gracefully reduce Active Sessions and open Files from a Windows File Server running DFS?

There is a need to extend VMWare Disks on two Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard File Servers running DFS Folder Replication. 

Due to VMWare Limitation of a 2 TB limit for Hot Extension of VM Disks,
we have to shutdown the server to extend the disks.

Plan previously followed:

1. Disable Folder Target in Namespace to all folders pointing to File Server that will be shutdown first - leaving the Folder Target Enabled in the Namespace to the other file server in the DFS Replication pair.

2. Shutdown the Server. Update the Disk Capacity in VMWare. Extend the Disk in Diskpart / Disk Management.

3. Enable Folder Target on Server with Extended Disk. Wait 24 hours for Replication to catch up.
 Then Disable Folder Target on the Other Server and repeat step 2 for the other server.

4. Enable Folder Target on 2nd Server (all these steps are in the namespace from Step 1 to 4)

When looking at Sessions and Open Files under Computer Management -> System Tools -> Shared Folders.
See a lot of Open Files in various Modes of No Access, Read and Read-Write.
Under Sessions, some users have Open Files with a session Connected Time and Idle Time ranging from a few hours to 40 days.

My question is after Step 1, 24 hours have passed but am still seeing a lot of new sessions been established to Folder Shares on the Server that needs to be shutdown
(connected and idle time ranging from 3 seconds to 19 seconds).
Where are these sessions for non-IT users coming from?
Any Ideas?
How to gracefully direct users to use the other server without causing in Outage?

I was hoping to enable a similar setting like Maintenance Mode in Citrix where existing sessions are not disturbed but any new sessions go to the other partner server so as to avoid an outage.

I understand that we are not talking about RDP or Terminal Server Session scenario and that accessing files via shared folders is different to them.
Drive Mappings, group policies and logon scripts are still enabled but via a Share or Alias Names not hard links by servers names (that I know of).

DFS Setup is as follows:
The DFS Folder Replication is published to the namespace.
The DFS namespace is available on about 6 other file servers.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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Thanks for posting a reply.

In Diskpart, Disk 0 does not have a * on GPT, other disks do - so looks like MBR - can this be converted or will it require a rebuild of the VM?

The Change mentioned in the question is completed, using the process described above - so happy with a plan to resolve the underlying issue which will help with extending disks on with the VM running.
Thanks for your help, have a plan to sort it out.
Thanks for your help, have a plan to sort it out.