DFS on 2012 R2 and 2008 – overlapping targets

[Blood]

#167258

Hello, folks

Really basic question for DFS gurus:

Single domain, Forest and Functional Level 2008, single subnet.

We have been using DFS for several years. It was originally set up on a 2008 DC and namespaces were later replicated (just the DFS structure, not the data), through the addition of a namespace server to a 2012 R2 DC.

When I set it up I included DFS folder targets that pointed at top level shares. For convenience I also created DFS folder targets that pointed to frequently accessed folders that exist as child-folders off those same shares.

For example:
DFS Path: \htlincs.localAPSDistricts
UNC Path: \OrionDistricts

DFS Path: \htlincs.localAPSStandard Files
UNC Path: \OrionDistrictsStandard Files

Districts is shared, Standard Files is not. Because these paths reference the same top-level share, Standard Files is considered to be an overlapping folder target

I’ve been running DFSDiag tests on DFS to clean up dead targets etc. Several of the namespaces contain overlapping targets

I’ve seen this article where it states: This can also occur if a script attempts to create overlapping DFS folders with targets under the same conditions; for example, \contoso.comnamespace1products and \contoso.comnamespace1productsinternal. You can create overlapping folders, but only if the parent folder (in this example \contoso.comnamespace1products) doesn’t contain any folder targets.

I’m finding the terminology confusing. I assume it means that the products part of the namespace should not be a folder that itself contains folder targets. So, as long as, in my example, Districts is not a namespacefolder containing sub-folder targets, the fact that Standard Files overlaps should not matter. Is that right? I don’t understand the implications of using a script as I have always manually created the namespaces/folders (our network is small with less than 150 shares).

Where’s the coffee… :?​​​​​​​

[Author]

Posts