DFS Name Space Server

[Eric Powell]

Hello, can the namespace reside on say my DC instead of the member that's
sharing the files? AND what will happen if that DC is rebooted, would access
to the shares break? Thank you

[DaveMills]

On Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:46:01 -0700, Eric Powell

Post by Eric Powell
Hello, can the namespace reside on say my DC instead of the member that's
sharing the files? AND what will happen if that DC is rebooted, would access
to the shares break? Thank you

All the details can be found in "How DFS works"
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc782417(WS.10).aspx

In short:
The DC is queried for the names of the "namespace servers"
The namespace servers resolve the DFS path to the UNC name of the shared folder
The client access the share just as it would had the connection been made
directly to the share.

So if the DC is down DFS name resolution fails but existing connections are not
affected. In reality name resolution seems to happen more than you would think
so the users will notice. It would be good practice to have more than one DC and
more than one DFS Namespace server. Each role can be on a different server.