When the wizard closes, your new Dfs root appears as a node below the Distributed File System entry in the Distributed File System snap-in's scope pane. To verify that the root is functioning as you expected, right-click the Dfs root node in the Distributed File System snap-in and choose Check Status from the resulting short-cut menu. If everything is working properly, a check mark inside a circle appears on the root's icon, as Figure 2 shows.
To establish Dfs links, right-click the root object and choose New Dfs Link. In the resulting Create a New Dfs Link dialog box, which Figure 3 shows, enter the name of the link, the folder it links to, and an optional comment. Also enter a client cache duration to specify how long client systems will locally store link information. (After the cache expires, client users must manually select the link.) Repeat this process for other links that you want to locate in the Dfs root.
Just Published
You must publish the share to AD so that client computers can find it. You can publish the link to the entire domain or to an organizational unit (OU).
Open the MMC Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in, and right-click the domain or OU of your choice. Choose New, Shared Folder, and enter a name for the published share as well as the path (i.e., \\server\share) to the Dfs share. You can repeat these steps to publish the Dfs share in multiple OUs.
You can target Dfs links to specific user groups. For example, publish Dfs shares that hold budget documents to OUs that contain the computers in your executive and accounting departments.
Replicate, Replicate
When you create a Dfs root or link on multiple servers, you can set up replicas to provide redundancy for failover or load balancing. Automatic replication keeps folders on Win2K NTFS servers identical.
To configure replication, open the Distributed File System snap-in, right-click the link that you want to replicate, and choose New Replica. In the Add a New Replica dialog box, which Figure 4 shows, specify the location of the second shared folder (i.e., the folder that will hold the replicated link) and select a Replication Policy (i.e., manual or automatic).
When you click OK, the Replication Policy dialog box, which Figure 5 shows, opens. Select the original folder (i.e., the one that currently holds files), and click Set Master. This action tells the File Replication Service (FRS) where to start the replication. Select the replica folder, and click Enable. You can also use this process to replicate a root object rather than a link.
Good Management
As you add links, you build the hierarchical tree that users see. The tree looks like a single network component but is in fact made up of folders from different servers—perhaps even different Win2K sites.
You can use the Distributed File System snap-in to manage the objects in your Dfs tree. You can use the console toolbar to delete a link, take a link offline, remove a link from the namespace, add replicas, check replication status, or set replication policy.
To maintain the efficiency of your Dfs environment, keep an eye on shared folders' content changes and tweak your links as necessary. For example, if a link is frequently busy and the linked folder's contents change frequently, shorten the client cache duration to help ensure that users get the latest version of any file they access. If a folder's contents don't change often (e.g., because the folder holds only boilerplate documents), lengthen the client cache duration to reduce network traffic.
Meanwhile, Back at the Client
To access published shares, users need to open My Network Places, Entire Network, then use the Directory icon rather than the Microsoft Windows Network icon. You can, however, map a drive to the Dfs share in your users' logon scripts. The mapped drive letter won't change, even if you change the source folder's UNC path in the script.
If problems arise, you can walk a user through troubleshooting tasks. Ask the user to open the Properties dialog box for a Dfs link and go to the Dfs tab. You can then help the user check the link's status and determine which physical share the client currently uses.
As soon as you're comfortable with Dfs, you'll find many uses for it. Besides preventing user headaches, the service offers an easy way to achieve failover and load balancing for important files. Dfs is also a great way to tidy up document storage and help users find all the documents they need. If your company's human resources (HR) documents, for example, are scattered on servers across the enterprise, you might want to use Dfs to let users access all those documents within the hierarchy of one Dfs root. This solution is easier than moving the documents, and users who already use UNC paths to get to specific files won't scream and yell—a win-win situation.
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