DFS

[GrimR]

I have never used DFS and have no-one to ask so hopefully someone here can point me in doing this correctly. Just looking into DFS lately. [too many drive letters]
Tried it out, what I noticed is that it adds another share name to the folder. [which is not hidden]
1. Should I create a new folder as the DFS root, or use an existing folder full of data, that I wish to have included in the DFS?
2. If I do create a new folder what permissions if any would there need to be and does it need to be shared?
3. How would I keep them hidden e.g Share$?
4. Just to clarify, nothing actually gets copied over to the new shared folder, it just acts as a link?
5. Lets say I have 8 folders e.g 2001 - 2005 on one server and 2006 -2008 on another I want to make the share look seamless, how can it be done, would each folder need to be added as a link?


Thanks in advance

 

[conan3]

Think of it this way

Two namespace servers hold the DFS Namespace. Second one is for redundantcy (No data stored here)

The two servers for data host the folder targets
(data gets stored here)

\\yourdomain\sales
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is the name space

\\yourdomain\sales\east
^^^^
This is the folder target

Server A on East Coast Server B on west coast
Namespace Server A Namespace Server B
\\yourdomain\sales \\yourdomain\sales

Data Server A Data Server B

\\yourdomain\sales\east \\yourdomain\sales\east

\\yourdomain\sales\west \\yourdomain\sales\west

these folder targets would point to a server such as

ServerA is on east coast
\\ServerAWithLotsOfStorage\DFS_east$
\\ServerAWithLotsOfStorage\DFS_west$

serverB is on west coast
\\ServerBWithLotsOfStorage\DFS_east$
\\ServerBWithLotsOfStorage\DFS_west$

Two folder targets on diffecrent servers allows replication between servers. The actual DFS_east$ share path on these two server would d:\DFSRoot\east.

>1. Should I create a new folder as the DFS root, or use an existing folder full of data, that I wish to have included in the DFS?

I would create a new folder called DFSRoots on the namespace servers. The only thing on these servers is the Namespace itself, no DATA. On the server

>2. If I do create a new folder what permissions if any would there need to be and does it need to be shared?

Create new folder on your Data servers for the Folder Targets. Think of the folder targets permissions as folder share permissions. Set the share permissions as wide as possiable (Defaults to Everyone Full Controll) and then secure your file/folder permissions with NTFS.

>3. How would I keep them hidden e.g Share$?

the folder target \\yourdomain\sales\east shows up but the actual folder path (\\ServerAWithLotsOfStorage\DFS_east$)does not.

>4. Just to clarify, nothing actually gets copied over to the new shared folder, it just acts as a link?

Nope you must move files into the new folder target (Robocopy.exe source dest /e /zb /copyall /XO)


>5. Lets say I have 8 folders e.g 2001 - 2005 on one server and 2006 -2008 on another I want to make the share look seamless, how can it be done, would each folder need to be added as a link?

create a folder target for each folder.

\\yourdomain\sales\2001
\\yourdomain\sales\2002
.
.
\\yourdomain\sales\2007
\\yourdomain\sales\2008



check out the DFS documents at Mircosoft

Dave