DFS-N: Site costed referrals should be enabled on domain controllers

  • Article

Updated: July 14, 2010

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

This topic is intended to address a specific issue identified by a Best Practices Analyzer scan. You should apply the information in this topic only to computers that have had the File Services Best Practices Analyzer run against them and are experiencing the issue addressed by this topic. For more information about best practices and scans, see Best Practices Analyzer.

Operating System

Windows Server 2008 R2

Product/Feature

File Services

Severity

Error

Category

Configuration

Issue

Site costed referrals are disabled on a domain controller.

Impact

If a domain controller becomes unavailable, client computers that are using the SYSVOL or Netlogon folders of the domain controller might fail over to a distant domain controller instead of a closer domain controller.

Resolution

Use the Dfsutil command-line tool to enable site costed referrals on this domain controller.

To enable site costed referrals on domain controllers

  1. To open an elevated Command Prompt window, click Start, point to All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

  2. Type Dfsutil server registry sitecostedreferrals set*<servername>*, where <servername> is the name of the appropriate domain controller.