DISTRIBUTED FILE SYSTEM (DFS)

DFS Replication is a role service in File and Storage Services. It enables you to efficiently replicate folders (including those referred to by a DFS namespace path) across multiple servers and sites. DFS Replication uses a compression algorithm known as remote differential compression (RDC). RDC detects changes to the data in a file, and it enables DFS Replication to replicate only the changed file blocks instead of the entire file. DFS Namespaces enables you to group shared folders that are located on different servers into one or more logically structured namespaces.

SCENARIO

Let’s assume, in your organization you have 2 departments called Finance and Sales and you have created 2 share folders on 2 different servers. So, users have to access the shares with 2 different UNC paths (\\sys1\finance\dfs1 and \\sys2\sales\dfs4 ). It’s very easy to remember 2 shares names but, let’s consider if you have 100 shared folders and users have to remember them or probably would make a note of those shared folders as an alternative. To eliminate this efforts, we have new feature introduced known as “Distributed File System” wherein, we create only one Namespace and allow users to access all the shared folder with just one UNC path. Isn’t that fantastic!

TYPES OF NAMESPACES

The following figure illustrates two namespaces as users would see them. Notice how the address format differs — one begins with a server name, Software, and the other begins with a domain name, Contoso.com. These differences illustrate the two types of roots: stand-alone roots, which begin with a server name, and domain-based roots, which begin with a domain name. Valid formats for domain names include \\NetBIOSDomainName\RootName and \\DNSDomainName\RootName.

EXAMPLES OF DFS NAMESPACE

INSTALLING DISTRIBUTED FILE SYSTEM

Login as domain administrator and install DFS Namespace.

CREATING DFS NAMESPACE

Open DFS Management console, and create New Namespace.

Enter the server name on which the DFS Manger is installed. In my example, it’s hosted on SYS1.

Now, specify the name for DFS Namespace called CompanyShare with Administrators and Users permissions set as Full access by selecting Edit Settings.

Now that the DFS namespace is created you can now add the folders (DFS1 shared folder, which is on SYS1) and (DFS4 shared folder, which is on SYS2)

VERIFICATION

Now try to access the shared folders that are present on two different machines with only single namespace.

If you save the data in Finance Folder it would save it in \\sys1\dfs1 shared folder. And similarly if you save the data in Sales folder it would save in \\sys2\dfs4 shared folder. Now question yourself, does it not reduce the labor of remembering two different shared folder names?