Windows Server® 2012 Unleashed

DFS Namespaces

DFS can be used in a few different ways, but it will always require the creation of a DFS namespace. A DFS namespace can be the name of a single server and share folder or the DNS and NetBIOS name of an Active Directory domain and share folder. The DFS namespace has also historically been referred to as the namespace root. The namespace allows connections to automatically be redirected to different servers without user knowledge. Using Figure 28.14 as an example, when a client connects to the domain-based DFS namespace \\Companyabc.com\Users, the client will be redirected to \\FILESERVER1\Users, and the client will be unaware of this redirection.

Figure 28.14. Domain DFS namespace.

For DFS to function properly with regard to ...