Discussion:
DFS on a Windows 2008 Server 64 BIT- integrates well with Win 2003
(too old to reply)
Kyle BLake
2009-05-07 19:21:01 UTC
Permalink
Hi!

I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!

I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.

Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!

I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.

Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
Kyle BLake
2009-05-07 22:39:01 UTC
Permalink
We have a domain based root fyi.
Post by Kyle BLake
Hi!
I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!
I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.
Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!
I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
Kyle BLake
2009-05-12 22:07:01 UTC
Permalink
Bump ? Anyone ran windows 2008 standard SP2 with DFS enabled ?
Post by Kyle BLake
We have a domain based root fyi.
Post by Kyle BLake
Hi!
I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!
I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.
Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!
I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
DaveMills
2009-05-12 22:46:27 UTC
Permalink
Do you mean DFSR (replication) or DFSN (Name Space)?

On Tue, 12 May 2009 15:07:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
Bump ? Anyone ran windows 2008 standard SP2 with DFS enabled ?
Post by Kyle BLake
We have a domain based root fyi.
Post by Kyle BLake
Hi!
I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!
I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.
Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!
I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
Kyle BLake
2009-05-12 22:56:01 UTC
Permalink
Both. Guess I'm not really asking the question right or something.

I don't want to create a new namspace as I already have one.

I just want to add this new server into the organization and have it
participate, thats all. It will just be a windows 2008 sp2 std server and
not the typical windows 2003 r2 server that all other servers reside on.

Just trying to put the latest out there!
Post by DaveMills
Do you mean DFSR (replication) or DFSN (Name Space)?
On Tue, 12 May 2009 15:07:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
Bump ? Anyone ran windows 2008 standard SP2 with DFS enabled ?
Post by Kyle BLake
We have a domain based root fyi.
Post by Kyle BLake
Hi!
I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!
I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.
Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!
I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
Kyle BLake
2009-05-13 17:11:01 UTC
Permalink
I see in windows 2008 dfs under file serverices that you can CONNECT to an
existing name space and manage it.

Thats what I'm asking. Looks like I found it. I can't see why I can't make
this member server part the dfs environment.
Post by Kyle BLake
Both. Guess I'm not really asking the question right or something.
I don't want to create a new namspace as I already have one.
I just want to add this new server into the organization and have it
participate, thats all. It will just be a windows 2008 sp2 std server and
not the typical windows 2003 r2 server that all other servers reside on.
Just trying to put the latest out there!
Post by DaveMills
Do you mean DFSR (replication) or DFSN (Name Space)?
On Tue, 12 May 2009 15:07:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
Bump ? Anyone ran windows 2008 standard SP2 with DFS enabled ?
Post by Kyle BLake
We have a domain based root fyi.
Post by Kyle BLake
Hi!
I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!
I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.
Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!
I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
DaveMills
2009-05-14 05:32:16 UTC
Permalink
There are two issues. 1) The name space and 2) the replication. I have not used
W2008 R2 but have W2008 64bit servers.

It sounds like you have set up the DFS name space with only links and the links
point to unc shares, similar to me. When I set up the W2008 server first I made
it a DFS name space server. This copied the name space definition to the W2008
server DFSRoot but no data is held and the link targets still point to the
existing server. Next, one at a time, I added new targets on the new server. For
each I used the wizards help to configure replication for the new link target
and a soon as possible I disable the referrals to the new target, in theory a
user could be connected to the new empty copy but I did this out of hours so the
risk was small. Then I waited for replication to complete, enabled the new
target and disabled the old target. Last I disabled replication to the old
target and waited for the event log to confirm replication was removed before
deleting the old target data.

All went well.

Interestingly I had a bit of luck while doing this. The original server suffered
a disk failure during replication and even though there was raid 5 on the data
the registry got corrupted. Recovery ended up with the server running but the
server service had died completely. Much to my surprise I noticed the Network
was still running flat out. It turned out the DFSR service was happily
completing the replication of the last two target folders (300GB) from the old
to the new server. A few hours later and my new server had a full replication
set of data and I simply switched to the new file server. Phew!


On Wed, 13 May 2009 10:11:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
I see in windows 2008 dfs under file serverices that you can CONNECT to an
existing name space and manage it.
Thats what I'm asking. Looks like I found it. I can't see why I can't make
this member server part the dfs environment.
Post by Kyle BLake
Both. Guess I'm not really asking the question right or something.
I don't want to create a new namspace as I already have one.
I just want to add this new server into the organization and have it
participate, thats all. It will just be a windows 2008 sp2 std server and
not the typical windows 2003 r2 server that all other servers reside on.
Just trying to put the latest out there!
Post by DaveMills
Do you mean DFSR (replication) or DFSN (Name Space)?
On Tue, 12 May 2009 15:07:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
Bump ? Anyone ran windows 2008 standard SP2 with DFS enabled ?
Post by Kyle BLake
We have a domain based root fyi.
Post by Kyle BLake
Hi!
I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!
I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.
Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!
I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
Kyle BLake
2009-05-14 16:20:08 UTC
Permalink
Thanks Dave for taking the time to share the information. What you did
sounds exactly like what I had in mind for me! Thanks!

The nice thing is in my situation 99.99% of the time no user will ever be
connected to this server. This server(last target) will act as a live backup
if a branch server goes down(first target). When is say target I mean target
priority option. You can manually set it to LAST (new win2k8 SP2) or FIRST
(branch server). So this is how I force them to connect to their branch
server. A VBS login script maps them to it.
\\domainname\dfsroot\branchname.

So I don't want my new server to be a new domain named root server. I hope
I don't have to switch that! I want to keep the vbs script mapping and
environment in place.

It's my understanding that when you create an AD Domain based name space
that it becomes part of "AD"... That means once you have everything set up (
replication, links, targets etc any Windows server can manage that info by
loading the DFS add/in. ( in fact I just tested this and all my links showed
up but not replication groups. I added all my existing groups so I have two
management servers!! V- Cool..

Well wish me luck with this replication action!

That god you replaced that server in time!
Post by DaveMills
There are two issues. 1) The name space and 2) the replication. I have not used
W2008 R2 but have W2008 64bit servers.
It sounds like you have set up the DFS name space with only links and the links
point to unc shares, similar to me. When I set up the W2008 server first I made
it a DFS name space server. This copied the name space definition to the W2008
server DFSRoot but no data is held and the link targets still point to the
existing server. Next, one at a time, I added new targets on the new server. For
each I used the wizards help to configure replication for the new link target
and a soon as possible I disable the referrals to the new target, in theory a
user could be connected to the new empty copy but I did this out of hours so the
risk was small. Then I waited for replication to complete, enabled the new
target and disabled the old target. Last I disabled replication to the old
target and waited for the event log to confirm replication was removed before
deleting the old target data.
All went well.
Interestingly I had a bit of luck while doing this. The original server suffered
a disk failure during replication and even though there was raid 5 on the data
the registry got corrupted. Recovery ended up with the server running but the
server service had died completely. Much to my surprise I noticed the Network
was still running flat out. It turned out the DFSR service was happily
completing the replication of the last two target folders (300GB) from the old
to the new server. A few hours later and my new server had a full replication
set of data and I simply switched to the new file server. Phew!
On Wed, 13 May 2009 10:11:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
I see in windows 2008 dfs under file serverices that you can CONNECT to an
existing name space and manage it.
Thats what I'm asking. Looks like I found it. I can't see why I can't make
this member server part the dfs environment.
Post by Kyle BLake
Both. Guess I'm not really asking the question right or something.
I don't want to create a new namspace as I already have one.
I just want to add this new server into the organization and have it
participate, thats all. It will just be a windows 2008 sp2 std server and
not the typical windows 2003 r2 server that all other servers reside on.
Just trying to put the latest out there!
Post by DaveMills
Do you mean DFSR (replication) or DFSN (Name Space)?
On Tue, 12 May 2009 15:07:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
Bump ? Anyone ran windows 2008 standard SP2 with DFS enabled ?
Post by Kyle BLake
We have a domain based root fyi.
Post by Kyle BLake
Hi!
I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!
I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.
Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!
I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
Kyle BLake
2009-05-14 18:21:01 UTC
Permalink
Everything is working well. I am going to setup replication to begin.

I wanted to re-iterate, it is two folder targets ( 1 branch ) (1 backend )

I user OVERRIDE REFERRAL ORDERING on properties of each target to set FIRST
and LAST .

The interesting question is what will I set for the new server since it's
the third!!
Post by Kyle BLake
Thanks Dave for taking the time to share the information. What you did
sounds exactly like what I had in mind for me! Thanks!
The nice thing is in my situation 99.99% of the time no user will ever be
connected to this server. This server(last target) will act as a live backup
if a branch server goes down(first target). When is say target I mean target
priority option. You can manually set it to LAST (new win2k8 SP2) or FIRST
(branch server). So this is how I force them to connect to their branch
server. A VBS login script maps them to it.
\\domainname\dfsroot\branchname.
So I don't want my new server to be a new domain named root server. I hope
I don't have to switch that! I want to keep the vbs script mapping and
environment in place.
It's my understanding that when you create an AD Domain based name space
that it becomes part of "AD"... That means once you have everything set up (
replication, links, targets etc any Windows server can manage that info by
loading the DFS add/in. ( in fact I just tested this and all my links showed
up but not replication groups. I added all my existing groups so I have two
management servers!! V- Cool..
Well wish me luck with this replication action!
That god you replaced that server in time!
Post by DaveMills
There are two issues. 1) The name space and 2) the replication. I have not used
W2008 R2 but have W2008 64bit servers.
It sounds like you have set up the DFS name space with only links and the links
point to unc shares, similar to me. When I set up the W2008 server first I made
it a DFS name space server. This copied the name space definition to the W2008
server DFSRoot but no data is held and the link targets still point to the
existing server. Next, one at a time, I added new targets on the new server. For
each I used the wizards help to configure replication for the new link target
and a soon as possible I disable the referrals to the new target, in theory a
user could be connected to the new empty copy but I did this out of hours so the
risk was small. Then I waited for replication to complete, enabled the new
target and disabled the old target. Last I disabled replication to the old
target and waited for the event log to confirm replication was removed before
deleting the old target data.
All went well.
Interestingly I had a bit of luck while doing this. The original server suffered
a disk failure during replication and even though there was raid 5 on the data
the registry got corrupted. Recovery ended up with the server running but the
server service had died completely. Much to my surprise I noticed the Network
was still running flat out. It turned out the DFSR service was happily
completing the replication of the last two target folders (300GB) from the old
to the new server. A few hours later and my new server had a full replication
set of data and I simply switched to the new file server. Phew!
On Wed, 13 May 2009 10:11:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
I see in windows 2008 dfs under file serverices that you can CONNECT to an
existing name space and manage it.
Thats what I'm asking. Looks like I found it. I can't see why I can't make
this member server part the dfs environment.
Post by Kyle BLake
Both. Guess I'm not really asking the question right or something.
I don't want to create a new namspace as I already have one.
I just want to add this new server into the organization and have it
participate, thats all. It will just be a windows 2008 sp2 std server and
not the typical windows 2003 r2 server that all other servers reside on.
Just trying to put the latest out there!
Post by DaveMills
Do you mean DFSR (replication) or DFSN (Name Space)?
On Tue, 12 May 2009 15:07:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
Bump ? Anyone ran windows 2008 standard SP2 with DFS enabled ?
Post by Kyle BLake
We have a domain based root fyi.
Post by Kyle BLake
Hi!
I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!
I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.
Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!
I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
Kyle BLake
2009-05-15 23:39:01 UTC
Permalink
just to let you know, it all worked out fine! I didn't make the win2k8r2
server a name server because it was not a DC.

I just added folders and made it a root target and boom replication occured!
Worked great so far, all my branch server shares are replicated!!!
Post by Kyle BLake
Thanks Dave for taking the time to share the information. What you did
sounds exactly like what I had in mind for me! Thanks!
The nice thing is in my situation 99.99% of the time no user will ever be
connected to this server. This server(last target) will act as a live backup
if a branch server goes down(first target). When is say target I mean target
priority option. You can manually set it to LAST (new win2k8 SP2) or FIRST
(branch server). So this is how I force them to connect to their branch
server. A VBS login script maps them to it.
\\domainname\dfsroot\branchname.
So I don't want my new server to be a new domain named root server. I hope
I don't have to switch that! I want to keep the vbs script mapping and
environment in place.
It's my understanding that when you create an AD Domain based name space
that it becomes part of "AD"... That means once you have everything set up (
replication, links, targets etc any Windows server can manage that info by
loading the DFS add/in. ( in fact I just tested this and all my links showed
up but not replication groups. I added all my existing groups so I have two
management servers!! V- Cool..
Well wish me luck with this replication action!
That god you replaced that server in time!
Post by DaveMills
There are two issues. 1) The name space and 2) the replication. I have not used
W2008 R2 but have W2008 64bit servers.
It sounds like you have set up the DFS name space with only links and the links
point to unc shares, similar to me. When I set up the W2008 server first I made
it a DFS name space server. This copied the name space definition to the W2008
server DFSRoot but no data is held and the link targets still point to the
existing server. Next, one at a time, I added new targets on the new server. For
each I used the wizards help to configure replication for the new link target
and a soon as possible I disable the referrals to the new target, in theory a
user could be connected to the new empty copy but I did this out of hours so the
risk was small. Then I waited for replication to complete, enabled the new
target and disabled the old target. Last I disabled replication to the old
target and waited for the event log to confirm replication was removed before
deleting the old target data.
All went well.
Interestingly I had a bit of luck while doing this. The original server suffered
a disk failure during replication and even though there was raid 5 on the data
the registry got corrupted. Recovery ended up with the server running but the
server service had died completely. Much to my surprise I noticed the Network
was still running flat out. It turned out the DFSR service was happily
completing the replication of the last two target folders (300GB) from the old
to the new server. A few hours later and my new server had a full replication
set of data and I simply switched to the new file server. Phew!
On Wed, 13 May 2009 10:11:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
I see in windows 2008 dfs under file serverices that you can CONNECT to an
existing name space and manage it.
Thats what I'm asking. Looks like I found it. I can't see why I can't make
this member server part the dfs environment.
Post by Kyle BLake
Both. Guess I'm not really asking the question right or something.
I don't want to create a new namspace as I already have one.
I just want to add this new server into the organization and have it
participate, thats all. It will just be a windows 2008 sp2 std server and
not the typical windows 2003 r2 server that all other servers reside on.
Just trying to put the latest out there!
Post by DaveMills
Do you mean DFSR (replication) or DFSN (Name Space)?
On Tue, 12 May 2009 15:07:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
Bump ? Anyone ran windows 2008 standard SP2 with DFS enabled ?
Post by Kyle BLake
We have a domain based root fyi.
Post by Kyle BLake
Hi!
I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!
I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.
Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!
I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
DaveMills
2009-05-20 06:35:03 UTC
Permalink
On Fri, 15 May 2009 16:39:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
just to let you know, it all worked out fine! I didn't make the win2k8r2
server a name server because it was not a DC.
I just added folders and made it a root target and boom replication occured!
Worked great so far, all my branch server shares are replicated!!!
Glad to here it went well. Don't be surprised if the off client connect to the
lower priority link. It happened to me on W2003 R2 in a single site. I never
worked out exactly why, I assume it was slow response from the high priority
server and the client decided to use the available alternative. Hence my plan
now it to disable the alternatives and manually enable them when necessary.
Post by Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
Thanks Dave for taking the time to share the information. What you did
sounds exactly like what I had in mind for me! Thanks!
The nice thing is in my situation 99.99% of the time no user will ever be
connected to this server. This server(last target) will act as a live backup
if a branch server goes down(first target). When is say target I mean target
priority option. You can manually set it to LAST (new win2k8 SP2) or FIRST
(branch server). So this is how I force them to connect to their branch
server. A VBS login script maps them to it.
\\domainname\dfsroot\branchname.
So I don't want my new server to be a new domain named root server. I hope
I don't have to switch that! I want to keep the vbs script mapping and
environment in place.
It's my understanding that when you create an AD Domain based name space
that it becomes part of "AD"... That means once you have everything set up (
replication, links, targets etc any Windows server can manage that info by
loading the DFS add/in. ( in fact I just tested this and all my links showed
up but not replication groups. I added all my existing groups so I have two
management servers!! V- Cool..
Well wish me luck with this replication action!
That god you replaced that server in time!
Post by DaveMills
There are two issues. 1) The name space and 2) the replication. I have not used
W2008 R2 but have W2008 64bit servers.
It sounds like you have set up the DFS name space with only links and the links
point to unc shares, similar to me. When I set up the W2008 server first I made
it a DFS name space server. This copied the name space definition to the W2008
server DFSRoot but no data is held and the link targets still point to the
existing server. Next, one at a time, I added new targets on the new server. For
each I used the wizards help to configure replication for the new link target
and a soon as possible I disable the referrals to the new target, in theory a
user could be connected to the new empty copy but I did this out of hours so the
risk was small. Then I waited for replication to complete, enabled the new
target and disabled the old target. Last I disabled replication to the old
target and waited for the event log to confirm replication was removed before
deleting the old target data.
All went well.
Interestingly I had a bit of luck while doing this. The original server suffered
a disk failure during replication and even though there was raid 5 on the data
the registry got corrupted. Recovery ended up with the server running but the
server service had died completely. Much to my surprise I noticed the Network
was still running flat out. It turned out the DFSR service was happily
completing the replication of the last two target folders (300GB) from the old
to the new server. A few hours later and my new server had a full replication
set of data and I simply switched to the new file server. Phew!
On Wed, 13 May 2009 10:11:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
I see in windows 2008 dfs under file serverices that you can CONNECT to an
existing name space and manage it.
Thats what I'm asking. Looks like I found it. I can't see why I can't make
this member server part the dfs environment.
Post by Kyle BLake
Both. Guess I'm not really asking the question right or something.
I don't want to create a new namspace as I already have one.
I just want to add this new server into the organization and have it
participate, thats all. It will just be a windows 2008 sp2 std server and
not the typical windows 2003 r2 server that all other servers reside on.
Just trying to put the latest out there!
Post by DaveMills
Do you mean DFSR (replication) or DFSN (Name Space)?
On Tue, 12 May 2009 15:07:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
Bump ? Anyone ran windows 2008 standard SP2 with DFS enabled ?
Post by Kyle BLake
We have a domain based root fyi.
Post by Kyle BLake
Hi!
I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!
I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.
Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!
I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
Kyle BLake
2009-05-20 15:40:01 UTC
Permalink
Yah very happy with it. I don't think I've experienced the fall back issue.
When I deployed this years and years ago I made sure each XP client had the
fall back KB patch applied. I even tested this and it worked. If it isn't
applied the users just keep working off the backup when the primary has been
repaired. We usually get a call if someone is working off the backup.
Thanks for the tip! Our branch servers would never be that busy, at most 15
people connect to it!

Thanks for sharing. By the way you can run more than one root domain name
when you apply a patch. Some litature states you need Win2kr3 r2 Enterprise
to run multiple roots, not true. Apply this patch(forgot) and you can run
another \\domain\rootname\ "root name"

Do you have any other tips? I know if your a user and you click on the
share your accessing then choose properties that you can see what server you
are running off of. Good for troubleshooting.

Also do you have each site as a "DC"?
Post by DaveMills
Glad to here it went well. Don't be surprised if the off client connect to the
lower priority link. It happened to me on W2003 R2 in a single site. I never
worked out exactly why, I assume it was slow response from the high priority
server and the client decided to use the available alternative. Hence my plan
now it to disable the alternatives and manually enable them when necessary.
On Fri, 15 May 2009 16:39:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
just to let you know, it all worked out fine! I didn't make the win2k8r2
server a name server because it was not a DC.
I just added folders and made it a root target and boom replication occured!
Worked great so far, all my branch server shares are replicated!!!
Glad to here it went well. Don't be surprised if the off client connect to the
lower priority link. It happened to me on W2003 R2 in a single site. I never
worked out exactly why, I assume it was slow response from the high priority
server and the client decided to use the available alternative. Hence my plan
now it to disable the alternatives and manually enable them when necessary.
Post by Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
Thanks Dave for taking the time to share the information. What you did
sounds exactly like what I had in mind for me! Thanks!
The nice thing is in my situation 99.99% of the time no user will ever be
connected to this server. This server(last target) will act as a live backup
if a branch server goes down(first target). When is say target I mean target
priority option. You can manually set it to LAST (new win2k8 SP2) or FIRST
(branch server). So this is how I force them to connect to their branch
server. A VBS login script maps them to it.
\\domainname\dfsroot\branchname.
So I don't want my new server to be a new domain named root server. I hope
I don't have to switch that! I want to keep the vbs script mapping and
environment in place.
It's my understanding that when you create an AD Domain based name space
that it becomes part of "AD"... That means once you have everything set up (
replication, links, targets etc any Windows server can manage that info by
loading the DFS add/in. ( in fact I just tested this and all my links showed
up but not replication groups. I added all my existing groups so I have two
management servers!! V- Cool..
Well wish me luck with this replication action!
That god you replaced that server in time!
Post by DaveMills
There are two issues. 1) The name space and 2) the replication. I have not used
W2008 R2 but have W2008 64bit servers.
It sounds like you have set up the DFS name space with only links and the links
point to unc shares, similar to me. When I set up the W2008 server first I made
it a DFS name space server. This copied the name space definition to the W2008
server DFSRoot but no data is held and the link targets still point to the
existing server. Next, one at a time, I added new targets on the new server. For
each I used the wizards help to configure replication for the new link target
and a soon as possible I disable the referrals to the new target, in theory a
user could be connected to the new empty copy but I did this out of hours so the
risk was small. Then I waited for replication to complete, enabled the new
target and disabled the old target. Last I disabled replication to the old
target and waited for the event log to confirm replication was removed before
deleting the old target data.
All went well.
Interestingly I had a bit of luck while doing this. The original server suffered
a disk failure during replication and even though there was raid 5 on the data
the registry got corrupted. Recovery ended up with the server running but the
server service had died completely. Much to my surprise I noticed the Network
was still running flat out. It turned out the DFSR service was happily
completing the replication of the last two target folders (300GB) from the old
to the new server. A few hours later and my new server had a full replication
set of data and I simply switched to the new file server. Phew!
On Wed, 13 May 2009 10:11:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
I see in windows 2008 dfs under file serverices that you can CONNECT to an
existing name space and manage it.
Thats what I'm asking. Looks like I found it. I can't see why I can't make
this member server part the dfs environment.
Post by Kyle BLake
Both. Guess I'm not really asking the question right or something.
I don't want to create a new namspace as I already have one.
I just want to add this new server into the organization and have it
participate, thats all. It will just be a windows 2008 sp2 std server and
not the typical windows 2003 r2 server that all other servers reside on.
Just trying to put the latest out there!
Post by DaveMills
Do you mean DFSR (replication) or DFSN (Name Space)?
On Tue, 12 May 2009 15:07:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
Bump ? Anyone ran windows 2008 standard SP2 with DFS enabled ?
Post by Kyle BLake
We have a domain based root fyi.
Post by Kyle BLake
Hi!
I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!
I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.
Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!
I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
DaveMills
2009-05-20 20:43:03 UTC
Permalink
On Wed, 20 May 2009 08:40:01 -0700, Kyle BLake
Post by Kyle BLake
Yah very happy with it. I don't think I've experienced the fall back issue.
When I deployed this years and years ago I made sure each XP client had the
fall back KB patch applied. I even tested this and it worked. If it isn't
applied the users just keep working off the backup when the primary has been
repaired. We usually get a call if someone is working off the backup.
Thanks for the tip! Our branch servers would never be that busy, at most 15
people connect to it!
Thanks for sharing. By the way you can run more than one root domain name
when you apply a patch. Some litature states you need Win2kr3 r2 Enterprise
to run multiple roots, not true. Apply this patch(forgot) and you can run
another \\domain\rootname\ "root name"
Do you have any other tips? I know if your a user and you click on the
share your accessing then choose properties that you can see what server you
are running off of. Good for troubleshooting.
Also do you have each site as a "DC"?
I only have one site :-)
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
Kyle BLake
2009-05-20 18:33:01 UTC
Permalink
Also read my post down below called:

Subject: DFS on a Windows 2008 Server 64 BIT- integrates well with Win 2003
Post by Kyle BLake
Hi!
I have a great working DFS structure where all links reside on Windows 2003
R2 machines and a native Windows 2003 infrastructure!
I basically only run 1 hot site ( the remote location , 11 of them ) and
then i have one other machine that serves as a "secondary backup if one of
the primary site's go down ). This is hard coded in the properties of the
link within the GUI. Basically forcing clients to use the primary one.
Works great, the backup server is then used to backup the data securely in
our corporate office! Works great!
I'm ready to retire the old backup server!
I'd like to setup a new WINDOWS 2008 r2 64BIT STD server and then install
DFS and slowly migrate it to being the backup server and remove the links
from the old one over time.
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
Q: Any issues that you can think of?
HAL07
2009-07-10 09:20:12 UTC
Permalink
Post by Kyle BLake
Q: Has anyone ran win2k8 64 bit r2 on dfs before? I think r2 is out
R2 is NOT out. SP2 is. R2 is expected RTM on monday (same date as Win7) and then it will be available on MSDN in the days to
come, however the real release date is probably around oct 22 as Win7 has that date, so it depends on your MSDN membership level.
--
-- HAL07, Engineering Services, Norway
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