DFS Namespace Server - Member or DC?

Is it better to configure member servers, or DC's as DFS W2K8 (Native Mode)
DFS Namespace servers?

I am in conflict with a colleague who is intent on using DC's, however my
preference is to install the DFS Services (incl DFS Namespaces & DFS
Replication services) on member server F&P servers, rather than DC's....

Any recommendations, suggestions greatly appreciated!

Personally I go with you because a) I like to keep DC uncluttered b) DFS is a
File service so it seems logical to have it on a file server.


On Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:55:01 -0700, MarkA <>
wrote:

>Is it better to configure member servers, or DC's as DFS W2K8 (Native Mode)
>DFS Namespace servers?
>
>I am in conflict with a colleague who is intent on using DC's, however my
>preference is to install the DFS Services (incl DFS Namespaces & DFS
>Replication services) on member server F&P servers, rather than DC's....
>
>Any recommendations, suggestions greatly appreciated!
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 type of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.

Hi,

In my vew, DFS root should be on Domain Controller and DFS Link should be on
file share (May be clustered)


"DaveMills" wrote:

> Personally I go with you because a) I like to keep DC uncluttered b) DFS is a
> File service so it seems logical to have it on a file server.
>
>
> On Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:55:01 -0700, MarkA <>
> wrote:
>
> >Is it better to configure member servers, or DC's as DFS W2K8 (Native Mode)
> >DFS Namespace servers?
> >
> >I am in conflict with a colleague who is intent on using DC's, however my
> >preference is to install the DFS Services (incl DFS Namespaces & DFS
> >Replication services) on member server F&P servers, rather than DC's....
> >
> >Any recommendations, suggestions greatly appreciated!
> --
> Dave Mills
> There are 10 type of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
>

In message <3F6DF871-C613-4E86-BE37-> Vipin
Chhabra <> wrote:

>In my vew, DFS root should be on Domain Controller and DFS Link should be on
>file share (May be clustered)

We're doing the same here, although I can't say I'm thrilled about it.

Our logic is that this way all a user needs to know is \\domain.name and
they can use that same name for anything from authentication (obviously
with their own name as well), email, VPN, to accessing files.

Since DCs need to be file servers as well for the default AD share,
there doesn't seem to be much harm in having a DFS root there too.

Hello,

From the DFS perspective, there's no difference between creating a DFS root
in a member server or a DC.


"DevilsPGD" wrote:

> In message <3F6DF871-C613-4E86-BE37-> Vipin
> Chhabra <> wrote:
>
> >In my vew, DFS root should be on Domain Controller and DFS Link should be on
> >file share (May be clustered)
>
> We're doing the same here, although I can't say I'm thrilled about it.
>
> Our logic is that this way all a user needs to know is \\domain.name and
> they can use that same name for anything from authentication (obviously
> with their own name as well), email, VPN, to accessing files.
>
> Since DCs need to be file servers as well for the default AD share,
> there doesn't seem to be much harm in having a DFS root there too.
>

In message <F578F83C-AC25-4D25-8885-> John
Angel [MSFT] <> wrote:

>From the DFS perspective, there's no difference between creating a DFS root
>in a member server or a DC.

True, but from a user experience point of view, it's very different.

If the DFS root is replicated to all DCs, then as long as any one DC is
up, \\domain.lan\dfsroot is all the user needs to know to access files,
whereas if the root is hosted on a specific server (or even set of
servers), the user needs to guess which server is local and available.

On Sat, 27 Sep 2008 09:47:38 -0600, DevilsPGD <>
wrote:

>In message <F578F83C-AC25-4D25-8885-> John
>Angel [MSFT] <> wrote:
>
>>From the DFS perspective, there's no difference between creating a DFS root
>>in a member server or a DC.
>
>True, but from a user experience point of view, it's very different.
>
>If the DFS root is replicated to all DCs, then as long as any one DC is
>up, \\domain.lan\dfsroot is all the user needs to know to access files,
>whereas if the root is hosted on a specific server (or even set of
>servers), the user needs to guess which server is local and available.

Why?
My DFS root servers are all member servers and \\domain\root works fine. The
only time I need \\server\root is if the PC is not a domain member.

--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.

You can create Namespaces on \\Server1 and \\Server2. This will provide
redundancy for the namespaces.

Your targets to let's say \\domain.com\DFS will be \\Server1\DFS and
\\Server2\DFS.

You will direct your users to always use \\domain.com\DFS and NEVER EVER use
the server names. As I've directed mine. They will never have to worry about
server names where the Namespaces or actual files are hosted, keeping you
free to move your data around.
--
_______________
Maximilian


"DevilsPGD" wrote:

> In message <F578F83C-AC25-4D25-8885-> John
> Angel [MSFT] <> wrote:
>
> >From the DFS perspective, there's no difference between creating a DFS root
> >in a member server or a DC.
>
> True, but from a user experience point of view, it's very different.
>
> If the DFS root is replicated to all DCs, then as long as any one DC is
> up, \\domain.lan\dfsroot is all the user needs to know to access files,
> whereas if the root is hosted on a specific server (or even set of
> servers), the user needs to guess which server is local and available.
>