Edit

dfsdiag testreferral

  • Article

Applies to: Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012

Checks Distributed File System (DFS) referrals by performing the following tests:

  • If you use the DFSpath* parameter without arguments, the command validates that the referral list includes all trusted domains.

  • If you specify a domain, the command performs a health check of domain controllers (dfsdiag /testdcs) and tests the site associations and domain cache of the local host.

  • If you specify a domain and \SYSvol or \NETLOGON, the command performs the same domain controller health checks, along with checking that the time To Live (TTL) of SYSvol or NETLOGON referrals matches the default value of 900 seconds.

  • If you specify a namespace root, the command performs the same domain controller health checks, along with performing a DFS configuration check (dfsdiag /testdfsconfig) and a namespace integrity check (dfsdiag /testdfsintegrity).

  • If you specify a DFS folder (link), the command performs the same namespace root health checks, along with validating the site configuration for folder targets (dfsdiag /testsites) and validating the site association of the local host.

Syntax

dfsdiag /testreferral /DFSpath:<DFS path to get referrals> [/full]

Parameters

Parameter Description
/DFSpath:<path to get referrals> Can be one of the following:
  • Blank: Tests only trusted domains.
  • \\Domain: Tests only domain controller referrals.
  • \\Domain\SYSvol: Tests only SYSvol referrals.
  • \\Domain\NETLOGON: Tests only NETLOGON referrals.
  • \\<domain or server>\<namespace root>: Tests only namespace root referrals.
  • \\<domain or server>\<namespace root>\<DFS folder>: Tests only the DFS folder (link) referrals.
/full Applies only to Domain and Root referrals. Verifies the consistency of site association information between the registry and active directory Domain Services (AD DS).

Examples

To check the Distributed File System (DFS) referrals in contoso.com\MyNamespace, type:

dfsdiag /testreferral /DFSpath:\\contoso.com\MyNamespace

To check the Distributed File System (DFS) referrals in all trusted domains, type:

dfsdiag /testreferral /DFSpath: