Get in Sync with DFSR

On an XP client, upgrading to R2 isn't as straightforward: R2 is on two CD-ROMs, and if you try to install the administration tools using the usual adminpak.msi package, you'll go awry. Remember that the first R2 CD-ROM is actually Windows 2003 SP1, so the administrative pack on that disk simply installs the Windows 2003 administration tools. Emily needs to go to the \admin folder on the second CDROM, where she'll find four unhelpfully named files. She needs only two of them: Windowsxp-MMC30KB907265-X86.exe is a hotfix that upgrades MMC to MMC 3.0, and fsrmgmt.exe installs the File Server Resource Manager, Print Management, and DFS Management snap-ins.

Build a Namespace
After the AD schema and Emily's distribution servers are upgraded, she's ready to build her namespace. First, she takes down her existing namespace using either the new DFS Management snap-in or the legacy DFS administrative tool. Because she has FRS configured to replicate member-server data, it's best to use the legacy tool to disable FRS replication. She then removes the root targets by using either the snap-in or the legacy tool.

Next, she builds her new namespace. Because HardwareTX is a small company, its two domain controllers (DCs)—HoustonDC and FortWorthDataDC—will also be namespace servers for the new namespace. HoustonData, FortWorthDataDC, and SweetwaterData servers will provide file shares as link targets.

To build the new namespace, Emily uses the new DFS Management console. The left pane displays the familiar console tree that shows the elements you can manage. The right pane is the new MMC 3.0 Actions pane, which contains the same choices as the right-click context menu. The center detail pane displays two step-by-step guides that help the administrator configure DFS. It also displays illustrations of what namespaces and replication groups look like and provides links to the DFS Web site and newsgroups.

To create her namespace, Emily could right-click the Namespaces node and choose New Namespace. Because she's trying out new features of the MMC 3.0 console, however, she uses the Actions pane instead. Clicking New Namespace launches the New Namespace Wizard. The wizard's Steps pane shows how many steps she has to complete and which step she's on and lets her return to an earlier step by clicking that step rather than clicking Back numerous times.

Emily enters the HoustonDC as the server in the Namespace Server step and selects Next. If the selected server doesn't have the DFS service running, the wizard automatically starts the service.

In the next step, she enters a name for the namespace. The wizard creates the DFS folder structure on the server and sets the share permissions. Remember that this isn't the share for the servers that hold the data to be published in the namespace—it's the share for the namespace itself. Since the folder and share are managed by the DFS service, it's best to click Next and take the default of All users have read-only permissions. This default prevents two people from simultaneously updating the same file on different replica members.

The next step asks whether Emily wants to create a domain-based namespace or a standalone namespace. She creates a domain-based namespace. Unless you have a special requirement for a standalone namespace on a single server, you should choose the domain-based configuration because it provides scalability and fault tolerance that a standalone namespace can't. (The sidebar "How DFS and AD Work Together" details the advantages of a domain-based namespace.)

The next step presents Emily with a summary of her choices. Clicking Create triggers the namespace creation process. Individual steps are shown and confirmed when complete, and when the entire process is finished she gets a clear confirmation.

Add a Namespace Server
The Houston server is now a single point of failure for the entire namespace. Adding the Fort Worth server as a second namespace server provides fault tolerance in case the first server becomes unavailable. Because Fort Worth is closer than Houston to Sweetwater, the Fort Worth server also provides both local and Sweetwater users faster access to the namespace.

To add a namespace server, Emily clicks \\hardwaretx.net\Software in the left pane of the DFS Management snap-in, then selects Add Namespace Server in the right pane. She enters FORTWORTHDATADC, the name of her server, in the search dialog box to complete the addition. By clicking the Namespace Servers tab in the middle pane, she can see both of the DCs that support the namespace. The actions available in the right pane make it easy to delegate permissions on the namespace and view or modify properties of the namespace or a namespace server.

Add Folder Targets
To make her working namespace useful, Emily needs to add folders to it. She wants to add just one folder, ISOs, to the namespace. She clicks the \\hardwaretx.net\Software namespace, then clicks New Folder in the Actions pane. In the New Folder dialog box, she types the folder name. Clicking Add to add a folder target—the real server or servers hosting the data—lets her enter a server name, examine the server's existing shares, add a share if necessary, and even configure the share permissions. The ability to configure the link servers in the console is a big improvement over the earlier version of DFS. She adds the ISO network shares on her four servers as folder targets in her new namespace, as Figure 1 shows.

Because she adds more than one folder target, the DFS Management console assumes she wants to share data among her four folder targets and prompts her to set up a DFSR replication group. She chooses Yes, which launches the Replicate Folder Wizard.

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