Configuring File Services

Using the Distributed File System Larger enterprises typically use more file servers Used to improve network performce Reduce bandwidth by keeping traffic local Provide users at remote sites with local access to files Giving individual departments or workgroups their own servers. Fault tolerance Multiple servers can have downfalls as well Harder to find files Higher cost Backup issues

Introducing DFS Implements two technologies DFS namespaces DFS Replication Simplify locating files Controls amount of traffic over WAN links Provides users at remote sites with local file server access Configures the network to survive WAN link failure Facilitate consistent backups

Introducing DFS contd. DFS is a virtual namespace technology that enables you to create a directory tree that contains references to shared folders on various file servers on the network Instead of browsing through multiple server shares with DFS a user can browse through a single DFS namespace instead. When a shared file is opened in the DFS it will forward the request to the server that is actually sharing out the folder.

Replicating Shares Multiple master replication – duplicate copies of a file are all updated on a regular basis no matter which copy changes For example if a file is duplicated on 4 servers a user can access any 1 of those 4 and those changes will be updated on the other 3 copies. Data Distribution – access files from local servers Load Balancing – distributes requests Data Collection –replicates data from remote servers to central locations where backups can take place. RDC conserves bandwidth only transmits modified data.

Configuring DFS Install the DFS service Stand-alone Domain based Add folders Configure Referral order

Configuring DFS Replication Create a replication group Each folder must have a replication group 1 member per target Group replication type: Full mesh topology Hub/spoke topology When to replicate: Use a % of available bandwidth. Only during specified days and times.

Lesson 6 You Learned Planning is a critical part of a file server deployment. Your deployment plan should specify how many file servers you need, what hardware they should have, how you will configure them, how you will share the server data, and how you will protect that data.

Lesson 6 You Learned (cont.) Windows Server 2008 supports two hard disk partition types: MBR and GPT; two disk types: basic and dynamic; five volume types: simple, striped, spanned, mirrored, and RAID-5; and two file systems: NTFS and FAT. Creating folder shares makes the data stored on a file server’s disks accessible to network users.

Lesson 6 You Learned (cont.) Windows Server 2008 has several sets of permissions that operate independently of each other including NTFS permissions, share permissions, registry permissions, and Active Directory permissions.

Lesson 6 You Learned (cont.) NTFS permissions enable you to control access to files and folders by specifying just what tasks individual users can perform on them. Share permissions provide rudimentary access control for all of the files on a network share. Network users must have the proper share and NTFS permissions to access file server shares.

Lesson 6 You Learned (cont.) The File Services role includes several role services that you can choose to install, including Distributed File System and Services for Network File System. Selecting individual role services can add extra configuration pages to the Add Roles Wizard.

Lesson 6 You Learned (cont.) The Distributed File System (DFS) includes two technologies: DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication, which can simplify the process of locating files, control the amount of traffic passing over WAN links, provide users at remote sites with local file server access, configure the network to survive a WAN link failure, and facilitate consistent backups.

Lesson 6 You Learned (cont.) DFS is a virtual namespace technology that enables you to create a single directory tree containing references to shared folders located on various file servers all over the network.

Lesson 6 You Learned (cont.) A namespace server functions just like a file server except that when a user requests access to a file in the DFS directory tree, the namespace server replies—not with the file itself, but with a referral specifying the file’s actual location.

Lesson 6 You Learned (cont.) DFS Replication works in tandem with DFS Namespaces to provide unified services such as data distribution, load balancing, and data collection. To enable replication for a DFS folder with multiple targets, you must create a replication group, which is a collection of servers known as members, each of which contains a target for a particular DFS folder.