Create DFS Namespace with Powershell

Create a DFS Namespace
For simplicity I’m going to create a DFS namespace called files in Windows Server 2012 R2. Theres only one file server (contososrv1) in my domain, and this will be where I install the DFS bits, and it will act as the namespace server. To configure and install the DFS namespace feature, log in to the file server with domain administrative privileges, open a PowerShell prompt and type the command below:

Install-WindowsFeature FS-DFS-Namespace

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The file server currently has no shared folders, so I’m going to create three folders: sales, accounts, and production; and a folder for the namespace (DFS root), using the mkdir cmdlet. Note that you can use existing shared folders that are already populated with files.

$folders = (‘C:\dfsroots\files’,’C:\shares\sales’,’C:\shares\accounts’,’C:\shares\production’) 
mkdir -path $folders

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Once the folders have been created, they need to be shared. The code below shares each folder using the New-SMBShare cmdlet, giving Everyone full access.

$folders | ForEach-Object {$sharename = (Get-Item $_).name; New-SMBShare -Name $shareName -Path $_ -FullAccess Everyone}

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Now that the necessary folders and shares are in place, I can create the DFS namespace using the New-DfsnRoot cmdlet. \\ad.contoso.com\files is the UNC path for accessing the namespace, and \\contososrv1\files is used to specify the DFS root namespace server and path. The –Type parameter can be set to one of three values:
Standalone for a namespace that’s not integrated with Active Directory
DomainV1 for a Windows 2000 Server mode domain namespace
DomainV2 for a Windows Server 2008 mode domain namespace
For more information on the differences between standalone and domain-based namespaces, see Planning a DFS Architecture, Part 1 on the Petri IT Knowledgebase. Before selecting the DomainV2 mode, make sure that the forest-functional level is set to Windows Server 2003 or higher, the domain functional level is set to Windows Server 2008 or higher, and that all namespace servers are running Windows Server 2008 or later.

New-DfsnRoot -Path \\ad.contoso.com\files -TargetPath \\contososrv1\files -Type DomainV2

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Finally, we need to add the folder targets to the namespace, i.e. sales, accounts, and production, which are separated from the DFS root in the shares folder. The code below adds each share to the files namespace:

$folders | Where-Object {$_ -like "*shares*"} | ForEach-Object {$name = (Get-Item $_).name; $DfsPath = (‘\\ad.contoso.com\files\’ + $name); $targetPath = (‘\\contososrv1\’ + $name);New-DfsnFolderTarget -Path $dfsPath -TargetPath $targetPath}

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