Jeff Cichocki
Guest
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 Posted:
Wed Oct 27, 2004 6:45 pm Post subject:
Newby Question |
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I have a single server domain that I am upgrading to windows 2003. I am
also adding a second domain controller to the mix in this process.
After I complete the upgrade and install, I want to implement DOFFS for
redundancy sake. I am seeing a lot of documentation that shows how to
create the roots, and links and such, but the one thing that I don't seem to
find documented is how clients actually browse the DOFFS structure.
Currently, they all have drives mapped to the shares that they need to
access. Can I still use the same log-on scripts to map to the DOFFS share
instead? Can I stop my users from browsing the network and force them to
only be able to find shares via DOFFS/AD?
Can anyone give me a little insight into how this looks and works from an
end user perspective?
Thanks
Jeff |
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Mike Frederick
Guest
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Thu Oct 28, 2004 8:57 pm Post subject:
Re: Newby Question |
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"Jeff Cichocki" <jeffc@belgioioso.com> wrote in message
news:u8yTXUEvEHA.3840@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
....
| Quote: | After I complete the upgrade and install, I want to implement DOFFS for
redundancy sake.
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I assume you mean DFS...
| Quote: | I am seeing a lot of documentation that shows how to
create the roots, and links and such, but the one thing that I don't seem
to
find documented is how clients actually browse the DOFFS structure.
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The DFS structure appears to the user as any other file system. All the
Windows programs that access files will work with DFS (assuming newer
Windows platforms).
| Quote: | Currently, they all have drives mapped to the shares that they need to
access. Can I still use the same log-on scripts to map to the DOFFS share
instead?
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Yes, you would change the login script from using the *real* UNCs paths and
using the new DFS UNC paths. You can stage this by creating your DFS
server, establishing your namespace and then changing the login scripts.
That way the "migration" is transparent.
| Quote: | Can I stop my users from browsing the network and force them to
only be able to find shares via DOFFS/AD?
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AFAIK forcing users to only see DFS network structures cannot be done, short
of changing all of your *real* share points to hidden shares. And doing
that doesn't stop them from accessing the *real* share point directly if
they know the name.
What really happens on the DFS root machine is that the directory structure
is maintained "under" the root share. The structue is only held down to the
DFS link level. DFS links are folders which really exist on the DFS root
server but are implemented as reparse points which causes the file system on
the DFS root server to give out a DFS referral to the client machine.
So, the client machine attempts to access \\SRV\root\folder\DFSFolder, where
"SRV" is the name of the DFS root server, "root" is the name of the DFS root
share, "folder" is just an ordinary folder under the root share, and
"DFSFolder" is a DFS link. When the machine "SRV" receives the network
request to access this folder, it utilizes the local filesystem drivers.
The filesystem drivers receive a "REPARSE point" from the folder DFSFolder,
which causes the drivers to send back to the client a "this is a DFS link,
do you want a referral" request. If the client can handle DFS link access,
it sends back a "yes please" request and the server replies with "DFS
Referral, go to \\xyz\abc\def". Then the client directly connectes to the
referral UNC and continues on.
This means that the client only corresponds with the DFS root machine long
enough to be told where to really go to find the folder. From there on, the
client traffic is all directed to the *real* network location. |
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