Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell

Name

Dfs

Synopsis

Stands for Distributed File System, a tool that lets you create a logical tree of shared-disk resources that are physically located on different computers on the network.

Description

The Dfs simplifies the task of managing shared-disk resources across a network and makes it easier for users to find and access these resources. Dfs does this by letting you create a single logical tree of resources that are physically located at different places on the network.

From users’ point of view, the Dfs tree appears to be a single hierarchy of folders located on a single server, whereas in actuality, it may consist of shared folders on many different computers. Users do not need to know the computer on which a shared folder resides in order to access the folder—they simply connect to the Dfs tree and access the folder. For example, documents for the Sales department could be located on three different file servers on the network, but by implementing Dfs, users can access these documents as if they were all stored on the same server.

Tip

Dfs does not add any additional access control to the shared folders it manages. If users have suitable permissions to access a shared folder on the network, they can access it through Dfs. However, when administrators add a Dfs root or Dfs link, they can specify who has permission to add new Dfs links to the tree.

From the point of view of administrators, Dfs simplifies the task of managing shared resources by centralizing them to a single logical ...