Creating a DFS Root Share
Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2
Even though this chapter pertains to a very simple environment with only one server, setting up DFS when you initially install and deploy your applications can save you a lot of time later on when your organization grows. You can add additional and distributed storage capacity to the DFS namespace without changing the way your users access the data.
When creating a DFS namespace, you create either a stand-alone DFS root or a domain-based DFS root. Stand-alone DFS is an appropriate choice in cases where:
Your organization does not use Active Directory.
You need to create a DFS namespace and you are not part of the Domain Admins group, or company policy prevents you from delegating authority to manage a domain-based DFS namespace.
You need to create a single namespace with more than 5,000 links. (If you can divide your links among two or more namespaces, domain-based DFS is an option.)
You want to ensure the availability of the namespace by clustering the Distributed File System.
The chapter example sets up the DFS shares as domain-based because:
The anticipated number of links is less than 5,000 links.
No clustering hardware is deployed.
Administration of DFS is centralized.
The organization is using Active Directory, with the anticipation of using File Replication service (FRS) for replication once additional servers are added to the configuration.
For more information about DFS and FRS, see "Designing and Deploying File Servers" in Planning Server Deployments of this kit.
To set up DFS
In Windows Explorer, navigate to D:\.
On the File menu, click New, click Folder, type UserApps, and press ENTER.
Right-click the UserApps folder, and then click Sharing and Security.
Select Share this folder, and then accept the default share name of UserApps.
Click Permissions, and with Everyone highlighted in the top pane, click Remove.
Click Add, and then type: auth. Click Check Names, and your field entry resolves to the Authenticated Users built-insecurity group with the default permission of Read. Click OK.
Click Offline Settings.
Select Files or programs from the share will not be available offline, and then click OK.
Minimize Windows Explorer.
On the Start menu, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Distributed File System.
In the left pane, right-click Distributed File System, and then click New Root.
In the New root wizard, click Next, select Domain root, and then accept adatum.com as the domain to host the root.
In the server name field, type DC01.
In the Root name field, type Public, and click Next.
In the Folder to share field, type D:\Public, and then click Yes to create the folder.
Click Finish to complete the wizard.
In the left pane, right-click \\adatum.com\Public.
Click New Link, and for the link name, type UserApps. In Path to target, type \\dc01\UserApps\.
This path can now be accessed as \\adatum.com\Public\UserApps\.
Close the Distributed File System snap-in.
Completion of these steps creates a DFS root and link for use as a software installation point. You can add folders and applications in UserApps, or you can add other links to other physical locations that contain software packages you want to deploy using Group Policy. Doing this insulates the system from future changes to the underlying file servers and shares.