Distributed File System (DFS)

Windows DFS (Distributed File System) is a Microsoft technology that allows us to organize and access files from multiple servers as if they were in a single shared folder. It provides fault tolerance, load balancing, and easier data management in a networked environment.

Topology

Here’s this deployment topology, here we will configure DFS on top of Windows Failover Cluster, where ultimately we’re able to access two different shared folder paths using one namespace

Configuring Windows Failover Cluster

First install DFS and Failover Clustering on the Windows Server Manager on both servers

After that, on one of the server open Failover Cluster Manager, select Validate Configuration, and add the 2 servers

After the process finishes, check on “Create the cluster now … “ and select finish

Now create the cluster name of “helenacluster2” and give each of them an IP Address

Review the summary and choose finish

Now the failover cluster is up, and the active node is on Win1

And if we ping the helenacluster2, we should get a return IP Address of the currently active node

Configuring DFS Namespace

Open DFS Management, select create New Namespace, select the primary server on which the data will be initially synced from

Give the namespace name

On Namespace Type, select Domain-based to enable DFS configuration on multiple servers in an AD Domain

Hit next until it finishes

Configuring DFS Replication

On Replication, select Create new Replication Group and select Multipurpose

Give the replication group a name

Next add all the servers involved in the replication

On topology, select Full Mesh

Then configure the scheduling and bandwidth usage for the replication

Select the primary member where the inital files will be synced from

Select the path where replication takes place

Next add the the other member to join the replication and select the path

Review and hit create

After a minute it should finish with success

Now on the created replication group, open the Replicated Folders tab and select Share and Publish Namespace

Give it the namespace path on which this replicated folder will be accessed from

Review and hit Share

Then it should finish with a success

Now if we open both path on Win1 and Win2, all the contents inisde the set folder will be replicated

And those folders can also be accessed using the namespace which will automatically select the active server based on the availability, but for now the automatic selection is not working yet because the namespace currently only has one server

To add another server as the namespace destination, on the namespace select the Namespace Servers tab, add Namespace server

Add the Win1 and its folder path

And now we have 2 servers

Finally the namespace is now accessible pointing to folder path on Win1 or Win2