1. Chapter 7 Configuring & Managing Distributed File System

2. 7.1 DFS Overview What is the Distributed File System?
How DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication Work
DFS Scenarios
Types of DFS Namespaces
What are Folders and Folder Targets?
Namespace Server Requirements

3. What is the Distributed File System?
The Distributed File System incorporates technologies that provide fault-tolerant access to geographically dispersed files
DFS technologies include:
DFS Namespaces - provide a virtual view of shared folders located on different servers
DFS Replication - provides high-availability and fault-tolerance to files and folders
Remote Differential Compression - provides a compression technology that is optimized for data transfers over limited-bandwidth networks

4. How DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication Work
User in New York
Server in New York 2 1
\\Contoso.com\Marketing
DFS Replication
\\NYC-SRV-01\ProjectDocs
Folder
Targets
\\LON-SRV-01\ProjectDocs
Namespace
User in London
Server in London
User types: \\contoso.com\marketing
Client computers contact a namespace server and receive a referral 1
Client computers cache the referral and then contact the first server in the referral 2

5. DFS Scenarios

6. Types of DFS Namespaces
Characteristics
Domain-based
Stand-alone
Path
\\Domainname\Namespace
\\Servername\Namespace
Location
Active Directory & memory cache
Server registry & memory cache
Size
up to 5000 folders with targets in Windows 2000 Server mode
up to folders with targets in Windows Server 2008 mode
Up to folders with targets
Availability
Namespaces hosted on multiple servers
Server cluster
DFS Replication
Supported

7. What are Folders and Folder Targets?
Folder targets include:
Are the primary elements of a namespace
Have at least one folder target
Shared folders (\\server\share)
Folders in a shared folder (\\server\share\folder)
A path to another namespace (\\domainname\rootname)
Namespace
Server
Folder Targets
Root
Folder
Folders with
Targets
\\LDN-SRV-01\Tools
London
\\NYC-SRV-01\Tools
New York
\\NYC-SRV-02\Training
\\Contoso\Public
Software
Tools
Training Guides

8. Namespace Server Requirements
A namespace server is:
A domain controller or member server
Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008
Namespace server considerations:
Must contain an NTFS volume to host the namespace
Must be in the same domain if the namespace is domain-based
Cannot be a clustered resources if the namespace is domain-based

9. 7.2 Configuring DFS Namespaces
Deploying Namespaces for Publishing Content
Security Requirements for Creating and Managing a Namespace
Increasing Availability of a Namespace
Options for Optimizing a Namespace

10. Deploying Namespaces for Publishing Content
To configure a namespace for publishing content:
Create a namespace
Create a folder in the namespace
Add folder targets
Set the ordering method for targets in referrals
Optional tasks:
Set target priority to override referral ordering
Enable client failback
Replicate folder targets using DFS-R
You may also need to delegate the ability to create & manage namespace

11. Security Requirements for Creating and Managing a Namespace
Task
Group
Create a domain-based namespace
Domain Admins
Add a namespace server to a domain-based namespace
Manage a domain-based namespace
Local Administrators on each namespace server
Create a stand-alone namespace
Local Administrators group on the namespace server
Manage a stand-alone namespace
Implement DFS replication

12. Increasing Availability of a Namespace
Domain-based namespace:
Specify additional namespace servers
Stand-alone namespace:
Create a stand-alone namespace as a cluster resource
Folders:
Specify additional folder targets
Replicate folders using DFS Replication

13. Options for Optimizing a Namespace
Methods for optimizing a namespace include:
Rename or move a folder
Disable referrals to a folder
Referral cache duration
Namespace polling

14. 7.3 Configuring DFS Replication
What is DFS Replication?
What are Replication Groups and Replicated Folders?
DFS Replication Requirements
Scalability Considerations for DFS Replication
Process for Deploying a Multipurpose Replication Group
Understanding the Initial Replication Process
Generating Diagnostic Reports and Propagation Tests

15. What is DFS Replication (DFS-R)?
DFS-R – multimaster replication engine that supports replication scheduling & bandwidth throttling
Uses remote differential compression to efficiently update files over a limited-bandwidth network
Detects changes on the volume by monitoring the update sequence number (USN) journal
Uses a staging folder to stage a file before sending & receiving it
Uses a version vector exchange protocol to determine what files need to be synchronized
Uses a conflict resolution heuristic of “last writer wins” for files that are in conflict & “earliest creator wins” for name conflicts
Is self-healing & can automatically recover from failure

16. What are Replication Groups and Replicated Folders?
A set of servers, known as members, that participate in replicating one or more replicated folders
Can be configured for multipurpose or data collection purposes
Replicated Folder
A folder that is kept synchronized on each member
Replication Group
Connection
Projects\Spec.doc
Projects
Proposals
Member
Proposals\Budget.xls
Projects
Replicated
Folders
Proposals

17. DFS Replication Requirements
The Active Directory schema must include the DFS replication objects
Servers must be Windows Server 2003 R2 or Windows Server 2008, & must have the DFS replication service installed
Servers in a replication group must be in the same forest
Replicated folders must be stored on NTFS volumes
On server clusters, replicated folders must be located in the node’s local storage
Antivirus software must be compatible with DFS Replication

18. Scalability Considerations for DFS Replication
Each server can be a member of up to 256 replication groups
Each replication group can contain up to 256 replicated folders
Each server can have up to 256 connections
The number of replication groups multiplied by the number of replicated folders multiplied by the number of simultaneously active connections must be kept to 1024 or fewer
A replication group can contain up to 256 members
A volume can contain up to 8 million replicated files, & a server can contain up to 2 TB of replicates files
The max tested file size is 64 GB

19. Process for Deploying a Multipurpose Replication Group
Select the type of replication group to create
Specify the name and domain
Add the replication group members
Specify a topology
Specify the replication group schedule and bandwidth
Specify the primary member
Specify the folders to replicate and the local path on member servers

20. Understanding the Initial Replication Process
Replication of DFS Replication settings
The primary member starts replication
Files are moved to DfsrPrivate\PreExisting
Files are compared and replicated
Primary member designation is removed

21. Generating Diagnostic Reports and Propagation Tests
Use the Diagnostic Report Wizard to:
Create a health report
Start a propagation test
Create a propagation report

22. End of Chapter 7