DFS: Slow performance accessing DFS folders - How do I verify which DFS server I'm accessing?

Question:

Is there any way to verify which DFS server I'm hitting when accessing the DFS share?


Problem:

Accessing files on the DFS share from inside site 3 (should be connecting to P1?) are incredibly slow, often 1Mbps or
similar. Connecting directly to \\P1\d$ and accessing files is perfect.

Possibly hitting one of the remote DFS servers?


Background:

FRS Root: "Datastore"
Servers: All servers running W2K SP4
B1 & B2 in site 1, connected on 1Gb nics
T1 in site 2, connected via 10Mbps Internet (40ms)
P1 in site 3, connected via 10Mbps Internet (40ms)

Accessing DFS from sites 1 and 2 are fast and presumably accessing their local servers.
DFS and FRS appear to be running fine. All DFS servers are also DCs.

Thanks for any help in advance!
....Adam

 

In Windows Explorer, right click a file or folder which is in Dfs, go to
Properties. There should be a Dfs tab. From there you can see which server
is active for your connection.

to P1?) are incredibly slow, often 1Mbps or

 

Thanks for the quick response - I found it right after I posted the message!

However -- I can't figure out why a client in site 3 would connect to a dfs server in site 1 when the site 3 server is
perfectly functional...

Any idea how to force it to use a local server?

Thanks
....Adam

 

Have you got your Active Directory Sites and Services set up correctly? You
need to associate subnets with the relevant sites. Also you should have
reverse DNS configured.

Were they all built in their current location or have they moved from office
to office? There is a flaw in W2K Dfs where if a server is moved from one
site to another Dfs doesn't regsiter the change, see:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;260857

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/administration/fileandprint/dfsbp.asp

Q: Is DFS limited to only providing referrals to servers in the same site as
the client?

A. Domain DFS is site-aware, which means that when a client requests access
to a portion of the DFS namespace, it attempts to discover and connect to
targets located in the same site. If no targets in the same site can be
reached, clients can access targets belonging to other sites.

However, administrators can force DFS clients to access only those servers
that are in the same site as the client.

This control can be enforced on the entire DFS namespace (DFS root and all
its links) or on individual DFS links.

DFSutil /insite /Set
DFSutil /insite /Reset
When this command is executed on the DFS root, the behavior is inherited by
all the links under that root. Any changes made to set or reset the
same-site behavior will not go into effect immediately. The DFS root targets
periodically synchronize with changes made to the DFS metadata, and the
change will go into effect when all root targets have read the newly made
changes.

Caution: Use extreme caution when setting this control on a DFS root or
link. If it is set on a DFS link that does not have any targets in a certain
site, no clients in that site will be able to access the data using the DFS
namespace.

dfs server in site 1 when the site 3 server is

 

The most recent version of DFSUTIL (in the latest resource kit) has a set of
options to simply update the static site information for Windows 2000
installations. While this is targetted for mixed-OS installations, it should
work here as well.

Note that some of the functionality in the newer DFSUTIL relies on Windows
2003; continue using the one you have, otherwise.

dfsutil /?
[...]
/Root:<DfsName> /ShowWin2kStaticSiteTable -
Shows the static site table used by win2k
/Root:<DfsName> /UpdateWin2kStaticSiteTable -
updates the static site table used by win2k
/Root:<DfsName> /PurgeWin2kStaticSiteTable -
removes the static site table used by win2k