DFS Management

First step is to make sure the DFS Namespaces is installed, if needed install it. Go to: Server Manager -> Manage -> Add Roles and Features -> Role-based or feature-based installation -> Select server -> Expand “File and Storage Services” -> Expand “File and iSCSI Services” -> Check DFS Namespaces.

  • Next step is to make sure you have setup Subnets with proper IP for your site. Go to: Server Manager -> Tools -> Active Directory Sites and Services. Check the “Subnets”, if is no subnet, just add one but make sure is matching the IP for your network. If you add a wrong IP subnet, the DFS will not show a “Site”, will say “Unknown” for the Site and you will not be able to use any of the DFS shares that you will create.
  • Let’s start the DFS Management, there are two possibilities to open it, first on Server Manager go to File and Storage Services, then right click on the server and choose DFS Management.
  • Second option, go to Server Manager -> Tools -> DFS Management.
  • When you use the DFS Management for the first time, you need to create a Namespace. You can create separate Namespaces for each department that you have inside your company (Ex: IT can have IT_Dept, HR can have HR_Dept, Accounting can have Accounting_Dept), or you can create just one Namespace and inside you will have separate folders for each department. Those choices depends by how big is your company and how many locations / departments have.
  • To create a new Namespace you need the Server name (also, this server needs to be UP and running)
  • If the Server is down or not available you’ll see an error and cannot go to the next step with the setup.
  • Next step in creating the DFS Namespace is to choose a name. You can choose any name but if you create the Namespace for the whole department just choose a name that reflects that (Ex: IT_Dept). I’ve choose test1 for testing purposes only.
  • Next step is to choose the namespace type: Domain-based or Stand-alone namespace. For multiple servers and multiple domains choose the first option “Domain-based”
  • If you have only one server choose the second option.
  • Review the configuration and click Create if everything looks OK.
  • Confirmation OK page, shows no errors occur and your first DFS Namespace is created.
  • After the Namespace was created, you need to Add it to Display.
  • The Scope gives you the choice to select from: Domain or Stand-alone Server. When you choose one of the two options, it will load up in Namespaces all the Namespaces available for that Server/Domain. Let’s see it for the Domain first.
  • Now the option for Server. Because this server is also on a Domain, even if you choose Server it will show also the Namespace available for the Domain. If not loading up the Namespaces for Server and shows the Domain ones, just click on “Show Namespaces” and it will refresh the list. The same if you choose to go back to Domain, click on “Show Namespaces” for a refresh of the list.
  • After the Namespace was created, you will add folders. Again, depending how big your company is you can have separate Namespaces for each department and inside that you will create folders for each available network share. Another option for smaller companies (with just a few locations) you can have a Namespace with your location (Ex: US_Oregon) and inside this you create separate folders for each Department and inside each folder create sub-folders for network shares.
  • If you need to have a tree structure with multiple folder -> subfolders -> subfolders -> etc, when you create a folder just leave the Target Folder empty. If you want to have the folder redirecting to a network share just choose a folder target. First click on number “1” -> Add, then another window will open, click on number “2” -> Browse and last choose the target share folder and click on “3” -> OK. Repeat those steps to Add more folders.
  • After Added multiple folders it will show like this, with the Namespace and folders inside.
  • If you Added an empty folder, you can Add a target later.
  • Select the target folder.
  • You can have multiple target folders for one folder. As a backup share (have folders on different servers, but the same content), you can keep one Enabled and the rest Disabled. If you have problems with the one that’s Enabled, just switch to another target folder that you have Disabled and turn it Enabled and turn the one with problems Disabled. This way, you can switch over a share with problems to a new server.
  • If your setup is one Namespace for each department, just create another Namespace and name it to reflect the new department.
  • If you setup is one Namespace for each location and inside have folders for each department at this location, just create empty folders for each department and then create folders with target folders and move those inside the correct department.
  • When you move a folder, click on “1” – Browse and then on “2” choose from the list the new folder that you want to have it moved to.
  • As you can see with the setup below we’ve created two empty folders: Test-OverAll and Test2-OverAll. Inside those we’ve moved the folders with targets. Also, inside Test2-OverAll folder we created another empty folder “Test-inside-Test2” and inside this sub-folder we moved “Testing5”. Basically when your company is growing and you don’t want to create a new Namespace, you can create folders inside folders on multiple levels. At some point, it will be easy to create a new Namespace than just create another Folder inside Folder.
  • If you want to remove a Namespace, right click on the name and choose “Remove Namespace from Display”. With this option will only remove it from Display and you can Added back to Display later.
  • If you don’t need it anymore, just choose the option “Delete”. With this option it will delete and cannot be recover, you will need to create a new one with the same name or a different name.