DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication can be used to publish documents, software, and line-of-business data to users throughout an organization. Although DFS Replication alone is sufficient to distribute data, you can use DFS Namespaces to configure the namespace so that a folder is hosted by multiple servers, each of which holds an updated copy of the folder. This increases data availability and distributes the client load across servers.

When browsing a folder in the namespace, users are not aware that the folder is hosted by multiple servers. When a user opens the folder, the client computer is automatically referred to a server on its site. If no same-site servers are available, you can configure the namespace to refer the client to a server that has the lowest connection cost as defined in AD DS.

To deploy DFS Namespaces, perform the following tasks:

Task Reference

Review the basic concepts of DFS Namespaces

Overview of DFS Namespaces

Review requirements and prepare to deploy DFS Namespaces

Prepare to Deploy DFS Namespaces

Install DFS Management

Installing DFS

Create a DFS namespace

Create a DFS Namespace

Migrate existing domain-based namespaces to Windows Server 2008 mode domain-based namespaces

Migrate a Domain-based Namespace to Windows Server 2008 Mode

Increase availability by adding namespace servers to a domain-based namespace

Add Namespace Servers to a Domain-based DFS Namespace

Add folders to a namespace

Create a Folder in a DFS Namespace

Add folder targets to folders in a namespace

Add Folder Targets

Replicate content between folder targets using DFS Replication (optional)

Replicate Folder Targets Using DFS Replication