1 00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:04,140 Distributed File System, or DFS. 2 00:00:04,140 --> 00:00:09,300 The business problem that DFS aims to solve is something like our users can't 3 00:00:09,300 --> 00:00:12,180 get to their work because we have a mess of shared folders. 4 00:00:12,180 --> 00:00:14,200 Does that sound at all familiar to you? 5 00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:17,960 I've been a Windows Server specialist for over 20 years now, 6 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:20,190 since the Windows NT days, 7 00:00:20,190 --> 00:00:25,410 and having a shared folder web across your infrastructure and then 8 00:00:25,410 --> 00:00:28,780 mapping drive letters and the ensuing chaos, 9 00:00:28,780 --> 00:00:32,830 not just for your users, but for your IT staff to get to their work, 10 00:00:32,830 --> 00:00:34,930 is certainly a significant problem. 11 00:00:34,930 --> 00:00:37,940 DFS is a solution to that problem. 12 00:00:37,940 --> 00:00:40,970 We need to understand, first of all, DFS architecture. 13 00:00:40,970 --> 00:00:46,040 Now this is a Windows Server feature that's been in the product for many years, 14 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:50,560 and what we're doing here is creating what's called a DFS namespace, 15 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:54,680 and these namespaces can exist in one of two modes, 16 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:55,760 domain or standalone. 17 00:00:55,760 --> 00:00:56,990 Standalone, 18 00:00:56,990 --> 00:01:00,200 the namespace metadata is kept in the registry of that 19 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:02,340 local Windows Server file server. 20 00:01:02,340 --> 00:01:05,940 I would recommend that you use the domain model in which the 21 00:01:05,940 --> 00:01:09,180 namespace configuration travels with Active Directory, 22 00:01:09,180 --> 00:01:13,950 and you also can use DFS replication for your SYSVOL in 23 00:01:13,950 --> 00:01:16,050 your Active Directory replication. 24 00:01:16,050 --> 00:01:17,510 Much more efficient way to go. 25 00:01:17,510 --> 00:01:22,840 With that namespace, which, again, is simply a logical share point, 26 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:25,690 and I don't mean Microsoft SharePoint Server by the way, 27 00:01:25,690 --> 00:01:30,320 you can have multiple servers hosting that root namespace for high availability. 28 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:34,040 Within that single namespace in this example, 29 00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:38,850 \\Contoso\Public, you can create folders, 30 00:01:38,850 --> 00:01:43,140 which are essentially virtual directories that refer to targets, 31 00:01:43,140 --> 00:01:47,300 and these folder targets are distinct and discrete file shares that 32 00:01:47,300 --> 00:01:50,250 can exist on any file server in your infrastructure. 33 00:01:50,250 --> 00:01:51,450 So at the end of the day, 34 00:01:51,450 --> 00:01:55,630 what you have is a single universal naming convention path that you 35 00:01:55,630 --> 00:01:58,330 can point your users to in their drive mappings, 36 00:01:58,330 --> 00:02:00,130 whatever, in this example, \\Contoso\Public, 37 00:02:00,130 --> 00:02:04,050 and then they can browse a hierarchy that you design, 38 00:02:04,050 --> 00:02:08,880 that's the folders, that directs the users to the appropriate folder targets. 39 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:11,080 So everybody wins with DFS. 40 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:15,070 And the fact that you can have multiple namespace servers means 41 00:02:15,070 --> 00:02:18,040 you have some redundancy and high availability if you need to 42 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:20,000 take the primary server offline. 43 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:21,700 Now, of course, there's the question, well, 44 00:02:21,700 --> 00:02:24,260 if I take one of my file servers offline, 45 00:02:24,260 --> 00:02:27,960 doesn't that mean that the shared folders on that box go bye‑bye? 46 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:28,640 Well, no, 47 00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:32,730 because with DFS you can actually replicate your targets as well 48 00:02:32,730 --> 00:02:37,780 so that multiple DFS namespace servers actually have that target 49 00:02:37,780 --> 00:02:40,130 content on their file system as well. 50 00:02:40,130 --> 00:02:43,050 That is what we mean by DFS replication. 51 00:02:43,050 --> 00:02:45,940 And again, DFS Replication, or DFSR, 52 00:02:45,940 --> 00:02:50,340 is an excellent way to do high availability here for your file data, 53 00:02:50,340 --> 00:02:53,830 and you should also know that when you're using DFS in a 54 00:02:53,830 --> 00:02:58,760 domain context and you're using DFSR, you've got Active Directory site awareness. 55 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:03,670 Earlier in the AZ‑800 learning path we reviewed Active Directory sites 56 00:03:03,670 --> 00:03:06,280 and services and subnets and connection objects, 57 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:10,580 so you know that one of the key points of Active Directory is that your users, 58 00:03:10,580 --> 00:03:13,270 when they sign into their domain‑joined workstations, 59 00:03:13,270 --> 00:03:17,420 they're going to be directed to their closest lowest latency domain controller. 60 00:03:17,420 --> 00:03:22,040 Well, that same rule applies when your users are browsing your DFS tree. 61 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:25,410 When they hit a folder, a replicated folder, 62 00:03:25,410 --> 00:03:27,900 they're going to be redirected to the instance, 63 00:03:27,900 --> 00:03:32,320 that is the member that holds that data within their site, 64 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:35,070 so it's nicely architected for sure. 65 00:03:35,070 --> 00:03:39,060 But I also want to say before we move on to BranchCache that recall what 66 00:03:39,060 --> 00:03:41,620 we did earlier in the course with Azure File Sync. 67 00:03:41,620 --> 00:03:46,860 You may be using DFS and DFSR now, but as a hybrid cloud administrator, 68 00:03:46,860 --> 00:03:49,560 you want to start to realize some of the cloud high 69 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:51,880 availability and cloud backup, etc. 70 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:54,620 So I'm just framing this in the context of the 71 00:03:54,620 --> 00:03:56,480 Hybrid Windows Server Administrator. 72 00:03:56,480 --> 00:03:58,220 It's not an either or proposition. 73 00:03:58,220 --> 00:03:59,070 You know that. 74 00:03:59,070 --> 00:04:06,000 The standard consultant answer is it depends. It depends on your needs, your requirements, and your context.