DFS (Distributed File System) 2012 R2 SP0, Lab Overview

welcome to a lab overview of DFS distributed file system on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 r2 Service Pack 0 my name is Daniel L Ben 1 I'm a systems and network administrator slash engineer my LinkedIn blog and Twitter information are up on your screen and I'm going to ask that you use my blog if you want to contact me or check for my most recent publications although I do use YouTube to post my videos I prefer to handle everything else through my blog this video is freeware and is made in the spirit of open source you may distribute unchanged copies of it freely to anyone at any time care has been taken to site contributing sources and individuals please do the same if you find errors here in please comment on them and/or contact me so that we may all contribute to the community we've got just about a half a dozen slides to get through and then we'll be doing the rest in the virtual lab DFS provides three major things namespace name space topology redundancy and content redundancy namespace provides for the grouping of shares from many physical locations into a single logical location it presents a simplified structure to the end users is easier to use easier to search etc and it actually exists as links to shares in the DFS routes folder on all servers that host the namespace name space topology redundancy is optional it's accomplished by configuring multiple namespace servers to host the namespace content redundancy is also optional and it's accomplished with replication groups and replicated folders it can be used even without an accompanying namespace it speeds performance by distributing files and making them available on nearby servers it provides fault tolerance is multi-master and uses remote differential compression to replicate only changes within files when should we use DFS DFS is designed for relatively static content where version control is not needed we should not use DFS on files that change frequently like databases user profiles and PS T's which incidentally are not even recommended for land when access much less DFS we should also not use DFS for files that are changed by multiple users DFS crudely handles version conflicts but does not provide real version control there are two types of DFS namespace standalone and domain based stand-alone is accessed at backslash backslash server name backslash DFS root name and only one namespace can be built on any server domain based is accessed at multiple addresses backslash backslash NetBIOS domain name backslash DFS root name which is probably easiest for end users backslash backslash fully qualified domain name backslash DFS root name and backslash backslash the name of any DC in the domain backslash DFS root name many namespaces can be built in a domain and it can be set up on DC's and/or member servers but not standalone servers there are two server roles germane to a discussion of DFS or DFS are the DFS namespace is role and the DFS replication role the DFS namespace as role is used to host create or change a namespace a domain based namespace does not have to be hosted on a DC but it must be hosted on either a DC or a domain member server not a standalone server and just because one DC hosts a domain base namespace it doesn't mean that any other DC automatically also hosts that namespace name space host servers must be manually configured the DFS replication role is used to participate in create or change DFS replication on a DC using DFS are persist all the DFS replication role is not installed by default and once an administrator installs the role it cannot be removed so long as the server is a DC using DFS are a good rule of installing either of these roles will install the DFS management console I recommend installing both roles on any server in your DFS infrastructure and also on your dcs if they're using DFS are per system all replication instead of the older FRS in addition to administering DFS in DFS are with the GUI you can also use command line interface and scripts you can use DFS command DFS util and DFS are admin when troubleshooting DFS and DFS are you can use DFS direct you can generate a health report with either the GUI or DFS our admin health now in the lab we'll take a look at using the GUI to generate a health report you can also use DFS our diag and of course the DFS replication event log we are done with the slides so let's go ahead and head off to the virtual lab so here we are in the virtual lab we have two virtual machines running both our domain members they're on different subnets separated by a router the system on the left is finally print one the system on the right is pylon print to both systems have just a seed partition this was just a simple lab and in the root of C on both systems is a data directory the system on the left the data directory contains folder 1 and folder to folder 1 contains file 1 folder 2 contains file 2 and the system on the right the data directory contains folder 3 and folder for folder 3 contains file 3 folder 4 contains file for neither system has a DFS routes directory and both systems the only thing aside from the system shares our folder 1 is shared folder 2 is shared on the left as shareholder $1 share folder $2 and on the system on the right folders 3 and 4 are shared as share folder $3 and share folder $4 the next thing I'm going to do is show you that the DFS management console does not exist on the server on the left nor does it exist on the system on the right now we'll go in and install both roles onto both systems and we do that from within server manager the roles are in file and storage services under file and I scuzzy services the DFS namespaces role and the DFS replication role once installation has been completed we'll go ahead and close out of both and then we can see the DFS management console is now in the server manager of both systems so now that both roles have been installed on both systems let's take a look at the services on these two systems you can see we've got the DFS names based service and the DFS replication service both are automatic both are running and on the second system we should see the exact same thing here's the DFS namespace the role and the DFS notification role both automatic both running the next thing we're going to do is actually create a DFS namespace but before we do when we refresh the c drive on fp1 you see there is no DFS root folder and when we do the same thing on fp2 again there's no DFS roots folder what we're going to do is go into server manager open up the DFS management console right click namespaces and choose new namespace the server that's first going to host this namespace is going to be the current server dlv fp1 the name of the namespace is going to be sample DFS when we edit the settings we see f p1 is the server sampled DFS is the shared folder and the path is DFS roots sample DFS we're going to give administrators full access and others read and write this is just a simple lab we're not going to go crazy with permissions here this is going to be a domain based namespace not a standalone and we're going to enable the newer Windows Server 2008 mode the namespace has been successfully created and you can see here it is now on the backend when we refresh the root of C here's the DFS roots folder and again on the second server when we refresh it there's no DFS roots folder because the namespace is currently only being hosted on DL BFP one when we go into the DFS roots folder we see the sample DFS folder is in there but there's nothing in it because we haven't yet added folders to the namespace we've simply created the namespace the next thing we're going to do is actually add at the four shares to the DFS but before we do remember that on the Left we've got folder 1 folder 2 those are the names of the folders and they are shared as share underscore folder one dollar and share underscore folder 2 dollar on the right we've got folders 3 and 4 those are the names of the actual folders and the shares are share underscore folder $3 and share underscore folder $4 that'll become important as we start looking at how things are actually configured on the back end now we're going to go ahead and actually add the four shares to the DFS namespace we do that by right clicking on the name space and choosing new folder and we're going to give this folder within the DFS namespace a name preceded by DFS underscore just to make it clear that this is the folder within the namespace not the filesystem folder and not the share itself we browse to fp1 and here's the share itself share folder $1 now we repeat the process for the second folder now for the third folder we'll have to change this to fp2 because that's where the share for the third folder exists and the fourth folder okay so we've added the four shares corresponding to folders one two three and four to the DFS namespace now when we actually go to the DFS routes folder here are the links to the shares themselves notice we can't actually access any content from here these are just links that the DFS uses internally but let's look at the ways we can access the content we can go to backslash backslash dlb test which is the NetBIOS name of my domain back slash sample DFS and here is the actual content with the actual files okay another way we can access the content is with a fully qualified domain name dlb test dot Prime let's look at another way we can access the content this is the name of the first of two domain controllers in this domain and lastly this is the name of the second of two domain controllers in this domain so you can see there are many different ways we can actually access this content like I said earlier in the in the lab here the best way to tell your end-users is just to use backslash backslash NetBIOS name of your domain backslash DFS room name now we're going to add namespace topology redundancy by adding a second namespace server to the DFS namespace we do that by right-clicking on the namespace and choosing add namespace server the name of the server is dlb fp2 and again we're going to give administrators full access everyone else read and write and now when we click on the namespace servers tab we see both fp1 and fp2 when we go to the second system we see the DFS routes folder now exists let's refresh and alphabetize it it's right here now on the first server we see that folder one and two exists and on the second server folders three and four exist so the folders haven't changed the only thing that has changed is that DFS routes now appears on both the left hand server and the right hand server and on the left hand server we've got the sample DFS with the four links on the right hand server we've got sampled DFS with the four links the shares haven't changed on either system now that namespace topology redundancy has been created let's look at what that really means folders 1 & 2 shares 1 & 2 exist on the left folders 3 and four shares 3 & 4 exist on the right both systems are in the DFS namespace but if the left-hand system were to go down the namespace would be available but the content from folders 1 & 2 would not the content from folders 3 & 4 would be available if however conversely the server on the right were to go down then the namespace would be available and the content from folders 1 & 2 would be available but the content from folders 3 & 4 would not be available what I'd like to do next is to call up the two domain controllers for this domain we've got D LVADs one on the left a TDS two on the right when I open DFS management on these systems you can see that the namespace is not showing up here because this server this Active Directory domain controller is not hosting the namespace even though the domain is the second thing I wanted to show you is that the domain system volume ie sysvol is being handled by DFS replication if we go to the second domain controller we find the exact same thing there's no name space and the devayne system volume is being handled by DFS our just wanted to point that out for the sake of completeness now we're going to start setting up content redundancy the way we do that is by building a replication group right click on replication left click new replication verben this is going to be a multi-purpose replication group the name of it is going to be sample DFS underscore rep group we're not going to worry about the description for a test lab and the domain looks good next we add the servers that are going to be members dlb fp1 and fp2 it's going to be a full mesh topology we're going to use full bandwidth because again this is just a test lab now the primary member well the first thing we're going to do is set up folders one and two to replicate from the left-hand server to the right-hand server being that they exist on the left-hand server and not the right-hand server we're going to make FP one the primary member of this replication group the local path of the folders to replicate our C data folder one we're going to let DFS refer to it as folder one and we're going to keep existing permissions and C data folder two we're going to let DFS refer to it as folder two and we're going to keep the existing permission for that as well now we need to specify where folder one from FP one will be stored on FP two we're going to store it in C colon backslash data backslash folder one will let the folder be created on the target FP two and now we need to specify where do we want folder two from FP one to be stored on FP 2 that'll be on C colon backslash data backslash folder - yes we want to let that folder be created as well review the settings everything looks good there and create everything is successful replication will not begin until the configurations picked up by the other members of the group that's fine we'll let that go ahead and work on them on the back end now after just a couple of minutes we can see that the data directory on the Left contains folders one and two the data directory on the system on the right now contains folders 1 2 3 & 4 on the left folder 1 contains DFS our private which is an internal DFS link and the content file 1 the same is true of the system on the right notice the system on the right folder 3 and folder for just contained the content they don't yet contain any internal DFS links next we're going to set things up such that folders 3 and 4 are replicated from the right-hand server to the left-hand server and we'll do that within the replication group adding new replicated folders the primary member this time is going to be F p2 because the files currently exists only on F P to the local path that we want to replicate folder three we're gonna let DFS call it folder three we're going to keep existing permissions and folder for we're going to let DFS call it folder for and we'll keep existing permissions now we need to say where we want folder three from f p2 to be stored on FB one we're going to put it in C colon backslash data backslash folder three and we'll let DFS create that folder on FP one next we need to tell DFS where we want folder for from FP two to be stored on FP one and we'll let DFS create folder for on fp1 we'll review the settings looks good everything is successful well that replication catch-up for a few minutes and I'll pause the tutorial after waiting just about a minute or so we can see that the system on the Left has got the data directory in the DFS roots directory as does the system on the right the system on the left in the data directory has got folders 1 2 3 & 4 as does the system on the right the content of the DFS roots directory on the left is sample DFS with links to folders 1 through 4 and that's exactly what we're seeing on the right on the left the only folders that are shared are folders 1 and 2 and on the right folders 3 and 4 this is important to note because by creating the replication of folders 1 and 2 from the left to the right and folders 3 and 4 from the right to the left no new shares have been created and we'll take a look at that in just a minute now that we've got content redundancy is set up mostly I'd like to talk about something that's bad practice in the DFS roots folder on either system you've got the sample DFS folder which is the root for our namespace oftentimes I see people putting content in this folder that's a bad idea it's also a bad idea to store content in the DFS roots folder itself and we'll call this bad practice to the point I'm trying to illustrate is although you can store content in these folders it's bad practice because you want your DFS roots folder to simply can the links and the structure of your DFS you want your actual data to be stored elsewhere preferably in a data folder or on a data partition so don't store content here let's just get rid of these and store content instead in a data folder preferably on a data partition now that we've got replication to set up let's go into the console and take a look at a few important things if we go into replication we see that folder one is on fp1 and fp2 and that's also true for folders two three and four that's exactly like what we would expect what's a little strange however is that if we go into folder one in the namespace we see that it's only being served up by FP one as is the case for folder two but folders three and four are both being served up by only FP two now that actually makes sense considering that folders one and two are only shared on FP one and folders three and four are only shared on FP two the way to create true fault tolerance and redundancy is to go ahead and create new target folders to do that well first go to DFS folder one and add a target folder it's going to be on FP two it's going to be folder one that share does not yet exist so we will create it the local path on FP two is going to be data folder one administrators will have full access everyone else will have read and write we're not going to create a replication group because we've already done that the next thing we will do is folder two we'll add a target folder for that that's going to be on fp2 folder to share does not exist so we will create it the local path on FP 2 will be folder 2 administrators will have full access everyone else will have read and write we're not going to create a replication group because we've already done that next folder 3 new target this will be on FP 1 folder 1 excuse me folder 3 we will create the share the path on the local system is folder 3 administrators will have full access everyone else will have read and write and we're not going to create a replication group because we've already done that lastly folder for new target this will be on FB 1 folder for we will create the share the local path will be folder for administrators we'll have full access everyone else will have read and write and again lastly we're not going to create a replication group because we've already done that so now let's look at the shares that exist on FP 1 we now have shares 1 2 3 & 4 for folders 1 2 3 & 4 & on FP 2 we have folders excuse me shares 1 2 3 & 4 for folders 1 2 3 & 4 let's take a look at the console again now we see DFS folder 1 is now being served up in the DFS by fp1 and fp2 as is folder 2 as is folder 3 as is folder for that's exactly what we wanted to see I just noticed that our replication group is not properly named this should be sampled DFS underscore rep group not reg group I just wanted to point that out in case there was any confusion about that the next thing we're going to look at is how to generate a diagnostic report from the GUI we write single click our replication group and we choose create diagnostic report we're going to generate a health report it's going to be stored in DFS reports with a report name that's automatically generated we're going to include both of our servers in this report we're going to count backlogged files using dlb fp1 as the reference member these options look good we'll close the wizard upon completion and here's our report you can see that we have two servers with no warnings no replication errors no servers unavailable and no replication warnings down here we can expand the individual servers to look more deeply into what's going on on each individual system next what we'll do is we'll do a propagation test we're going to use folder one based out of FP one and we're going to delete all test files older than ninety days close the wizard upon completion and create that so the propagation test is running at this very second it's a very quick test to run it's very quickly completes on a small well router network like this so let's go ahead and go back into create diagnostic report and this time we'll look at the propagation report based off a folder one off of FP one now we're going to drop this down to one we're just going to look at the the last one we did there's our path and our name close the wizard upon completion and here we are so we see that the propagation tests there's been one completed test there are no incomplete tests no tests with errors so that's just a quick way you can get information on the health of your DFS R from the GUI thank you for joining me on a lab overview of DFS distributed file system on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 r2 no service back again my name is Daniel L Ben wing and if you'd like to contact me or keep up on my publications please do so through my blog make it a great day

Channel: Daniel Benway

Views: 65,835

Rating: 4.8642297 out of 5

Keywords: DFS, Distributed File System, Replication Groups, Replicated Folders, DFS 2012, DFS 2012 R2

Id: AazvgSQwmHk

Length: 32min 37sec (1957 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 16 2014