A referral is an ordered list of servers that a client computer receives from a domain controller or namespace server when the user accesses a namespace root or DFS folder with targets. After the computer receives the referral, the computer attempts to access the first server in the list. If the server is not available, the client computer attempts to access the next server. If a server becomes unavailable, you can configure clients to fail back to the preferred server after it becomes available.
The following sections provide information about how to enable or disable referrals or enable client fail back.
Enable or disable referrals
By disabling a namespace server’s or folder target’s referral, you can prevent users from being directed to that namespace server or folder target. This is useful if you need to temporarily take a server offline for maintenance.
 | To enable or disable referrals |
To enable or disable referrals to a folder target, use the following steps:
- In the DFS Management console tree, under the Namespaces node, click a folder with targets, and then click the Folder Targets tab in the details pane.
- Right-click the folder target, and then click either Disable Folder Target or Enable Folder Target.
- In the DFS Management console tree, under the Namespaces node, click a folder with targets, and then click the Folder Targets tab in the details pane.
To enable or disable referrals to a namespace server, use the following steps:
- In the DFS Management console tree, select the appropriate namespace and then click the Namespace Servers tab.
- Right-click the appropriate namespace server and then click either Disable Namespace Server or Enable Namespace Server.
- In the DFS Management console tree, select the appropriate namespace and then click the Namespace Servers tab.
Enable client fail back
If a target becomes unavailable, you can configure clients to fail back to the target after it is restored. For fail back to work, client computers must meet the requirements listed in the following topic: Review DFS Namespaces Client Requirements.
| To enable client failback for a namespace root |
Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DFS Management.
In the console tree, under the Namespaces node, right-click a namespace, and then click Properties.
On the Referrals tab, select the Clients fail back to preferred targets check box.
Folders with targets inherit client failback settings from the namespace root. If client failback is disabled on the namespace root, you can use the following procedure to enable the client to fail back on a folder with targets.
| To enable client fail back for a folder with targets |
Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DFS Management.
In the console tree, under the Namespaces node, right-click a folder with targets, and then click Properties.
On the Referrals tab, click the Clients fail back to preferred targets check box.