DFS: A basic question

[Net Worker]

Am a new to DFS so forgive me if this has been asked before....

I have 3 servers, Server1, Server2 and Server3, each of them have a share
called Home.
Under each Home there are users' folders. The users folder is different on
each of these server, i.e

\\server1\Home\user1
\\server1\Home\user2

\\server2\Home\user3
\\server2\Home\user4

\\server3\Home\user5
\\server3\Home\user6

Now I want to create a DFS share that looks like

\\domain\Home\ that should list all 6 user folders under it. I know I can do
this by individually creating links for each user folder, I prefer not to do
this 'cause there are about 800 users on these 3 servers. I was hoping I can
create a single DFS link (\\domain\Home) that some how will consolidate
the 3 home shares and its subfolders. If I try that now, it just shows me
the contents of one of the server that's nearest to me, more like a
fail-over/redundant share.

-G

 

[Murali Brahmadesam [MSFT]]

Hi,
If your servers are W2K you have 2 options
1) Use NetDFS******* APIs to get the links and recreate it under new domain
root
please see MSDN for more information on these APIs
2) use dfscmd.exe (a system tool), to recreate the namespace. for this you
need to
write another script to replace the name of the servers etc.

If you use W2K3 server, you have the above 2 options and another one
1) use dfsutil.exe (an IDW tool) to export the namespace into an XML file
and then
change the names of the servers using a script, and use import using
dfsutil.exe
to recreate the namespace under the domain root.

thanks
Murali

 

[Net Worker]

Thanks Murali.
So it basically means the links have to be created. My concern is about
maintaining them later. I.e every time a user's folder is deleted or added,
one has to use these tools or manually create /update the links, else we
will end up having missing or dead links. If I could just point the DFS to
the home level, then its dynamic, in the sense that it will show what's
currently there. This is what we are currently doing, having 3 DFS links
called home1 home2 and home3. Users wants to see a consolidated view though,
but we admins feel it will be an administrative nightmare later.
BTW, Have you heard of StorageX product from Nuview , also known as VFM from
NetApp. Its supposed to do many of these automations efficiently.
Has anyone used them?? Is it worth looking into??
-G