DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication can be used to publish documents, software, and line-of-business data to users throughout an organization. Although DFS Replication alone is sufficient to distribute data, you can use DFS Namespaces to configure the namespace so that a folder is hosted by multiple servers, each of which holds an updated copy of the folder. This increases data availability and distributes the client load across servers.
When browsing a folder in the namespace, users are not aware that the folder is hosted by multiple servers. When a user opens the folder, the client computer is automatically referred to a server on its site. If no same-site servers are available, you can configure the namespace to refer the client to a server that has the lowest connection cost as defined in AD DS.
To deploy DFS Namespaces, perform the following tasks:
| Task | Reference |
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Review the basic concepts of DFS Namespaces |
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Review requirements and prepare to deploy DFS Namespaces |
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Install DFS Management |
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Create a DFS namespace |
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Migrate existing domain-based namespaces to Windows Server 2008 mode domain-based namespaces |
Migrate a Domain-based Namespace to Windows Server 2008 Mode |
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Increase availability by adding namespace servers to a domain-based namespace |
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Add folders to a namespace |
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Add folder targets to folders in a namespace |
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Replicate content between folder targets using DFS Replication (optional) |