DFS shares

[RW]

I'm new to DFS and would like to learn from other experiance how it is
working and if particular behavior I'm seeing is expected.

scenario 1:
- multiple servers are mirrors of each other they located in diferent
phisical locations
- when local server goes down I see following: in some cases people are
redirected (as expected) to different server and all works but there are
clients who are no redirected at all instead they get network drive not
avalilable or similar message.

why would that be?

scenarion 2:
- when above happens those and failed server bacomes avaliable again those
who were previously redirected to second server are still accessing secondary
server, I'm guessing they hav eto do manual switch by going to drive
properties DFS tab and click Set Active right?
- problem is that those who previously were not redirected to secondary
server and were getting access not available now when the faild local server
is up they have to also go to drive properties DFS tab and although local
server is already selected as Active they still have to click Set Active to
acctually make it active.

so why in the first place this clients were not redirected and secondly why
they cannot access local server unless the go to DFS tab and confirm Active?

any by the way there is no difference between clients in fact I have had
this with exactly 2 same workstations, same image, same patches, etc.

- finally we run vbs script to map share drives base on AD group membership,
I never had problem running this script in past when mapping drives in format
of \\server_name\share now all that have changed is
\\domain_name\namespace\folder and I had couple instances where script is
executed and I know it is because same script is installing printers base on
group memebrship and printers are installed but drives are not there. I can
go to end user PC and run it manually and it is still not working what I
found though is that if I first go start - run \\domain_name\namespace and
open it, so I'm making sort of "manual" connection I can runsame script and
all works??

any ideas?

[DaveMills]

I guess we need the OS and versions for the clients and servers to start with.

Post by RW
I'm new to DFS and would like to learn from other experiance how it is
working and if particular behavior I'm seeing is expected.
- multiple servers are mirrors of each other they located in diferent
phisical locations
- when local server goes down I see following: in some cases people are
redirected (as expected) to different server and all works but there are
clients who are no redirected at all instead they get network drive not
avalilable or similar message.
why would that be?
- when above happens those and failed server bacomes avaliable again those
who were previously redirected to second server are still accessing secondary
server, I'm guessing they hav eto do manual switch by going to drive
properties DFS tab and click Set Active right?
- problem is that those who previously were not redirected to secondary
server and were getting access not available now when the faild local server
is up they have to also go to drive properties DFS tab and although local
server is already selected as Active they still have to click Set Active to
acctually make it active.
so why in the first place this clients were not redirected and secondly why
they cannot access local server unless the go to DFS tab and confirm Active?
any by the way there is no difference between clients in fact I have had
this with exactly 2 same workstations, same image, same patches, etc.
- finally we run vbs script to map share drives base on AD group membership,
I never had problem running this script in past when mapping drives in format
of \\server_name\share now all that have changed is
\\domain_name\namespace\folder and I had couple instances where script is
executed and I know it is because same script is installing printers base on
group memebrship and printers are installed but drives are not there. I can
go to end user PC and run it manually and it is still not working what I
found though is that if I first go start - run \\domain_name\namespace and
open it, so I'm making sort of "manual" connection I can runsame script and
all works??
any ideas?

[RW]

file servers are 2008 SP2 and all clients are XP SP3, AD is 2003 level
native, so we do not take yet adventage of 2008 DFS features

Post by DaveMills
I guess we need the OS and versions for the clients and servers to start with.

Post by RW
I'm new to DFS and would like to learn from other experiance how it is
working and if particular behavior I'm seeing is expected.
- multiple servers are mirrors of each other they located in diferent
phisical locations
- when local server goes down I see following: in some cases people are
redirected (as expected) to different server and all works but there are
clients who are no redirected at all instead they get network drive not
avalilable or similar message.
why would that be?
- when above happens those and failed server bacomes avaliable again those
who were previously redirected to second server are still accessing secondary
server, I'm guessing they hav eto do manual switch by going to drive
properties DFS tab and click Set Active right?
- problem is that those who previously were not redirected to secondary
server and were getting access not available now when the faild local server
is up they have to also go to drive properties DFS tab and although local
server is already selected as Active they still have to click Set Active to
acctually make it active.
so why in the first place this clients were not redirected and secondly why
they cannot access local server unless the go to DFS tab and confirm Active?
any by the way there is no difference between clients in fact I have had
this with exactly 2 same workstations, same image, same patches, etc.
- finally we run vbs script to map share drives base on AD group membership,
I never had problem running this script in past when mapping drives in format
of \\server_name\share now all that have changed is
\\domain_name\namespace\folder and I had couple instances where script is
executed and I know it is because same script is installing printers base on
group memebrship and printers are installed but drives are not there. I can
go to end user PC and run it manually and it is still not working what I
found though is that if I first go start - run \\domain_name\namespace and
open it, so I'm making sort of "manual" connection I can runsame script and
all works??
any ideas?

--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.

[DaveMills]

Post by RW
file servers are 2008 SP2 and all clients are XP SP3, AD is 2003 level
native, so we do not take yet adventage of 2008 DFS features

Ta. Similar to me but I have a single site.

Post by RW

Post by DaveMills
I guess we need the OS and versions for the clients and servers to start with.

Post by RW
I'm new to DFS and would like to learn from other experiance how it is
working and if particular behavior I'm seeing is expected.
- multiple servers are mirrors of each other they located in diferent
phisical locations
- when local server goes down I see following: in some cases people are
redirected (as expected) to different server and all works but there are
clients who are no redirected at all instead they get network drive not
avalilable or similar message.
why would that be?

A clue to look for is "fail back". I have not made changes to this yet as I have
at the moment a single target server (until I can rebuild the other server).
Normally XP client will switch to a different server but do not switch back
unless "fall back" is configured.

Some more info is at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/898900

It may be relevant to you.

Post by RW

Post by DaveMills

Post by RW
- when above happens those and failed server bacomes avaliable again those
who were previously redirected to second server are still accessing secondary
server, I'm guessing they hav eto do manual switch by going to drive
properties DFS tab and click Set Active right?
- problem is that those who previously were not redirected to secondary
server and were getting access not available now when the faild local server
is up they have to also go to drive properties DFS tab and although local
server is already selected as Active they still have to click Set Active to
acctually make it active.
so why in the first place this clients were not redirected and secondly why
they cannot access local server unless the go to DFS tab and confirm Active?
any by the way there is no difference between clients in fact I have had
this with exactly 2 same workstations, same image, same patches, etc.
- finally we run vbs script to map share drives base on AD group membership,
I never had problem running this script in past when mapping drives in format
of \\server_name\share now all that have changed is
\\domain_name\namespace\folder and I had couple instances where script is
executed and I know it is because same script is installing printers base on
group memebrship and printers are installed but drives are not there. I can
go to end user PC and run it manually and it is still not working what I
found though is that if I first go start - run \\domain_name\namespace and
open it, so I'm making sort of "manual" connection I can runsame script and
all works??

Interesting! I have not observed this but will look out for it in future. I have
had problems but usually have rebooted the client.

Post by RW

Post by DaveMills

Post by RW
any ideas?

--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.