Can a DFS share be used for Folder Redirection?

Question

Can a DFS share be used for Folder Redirection?

Solution 1

This is actually covered in Microsoft's FAQ for DFS. The answer is, it depends. Mostly yes but not recommended if using replication. DFS-R is made for replicating mostly static files. Users' documents change a lot and DFS-R may not be efficient at replicating the changes.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/dfs/dfsfaq.mspx#EWKAC See the question, "Can I use DFS with Offline Files and redirected My Documents folders?"

Solution 2

DFS Share can aggregate multiple shares in to a single logical tree (so it all appears as one directory structure).

For Example, take:

\\ServerA\Share1
\\ServerB\Share2

And make:

\\example.com\DFS
    \Share1
    \Share2

They can also be the target of client folder redirection.

And they can do a whole lot more...

Comments

[Zoredache]

Not sure how multiple shares in a target relates. But I agree it does work. If with just a single target DFS is useful to make it so your configuration isn't hard coded to a specific server name.

[Aashraya Singal]

I've also seen wierd conflicts between offline files conflict resolution and DFS replication. Wouldn't recommend DFS if you're also using offline files.

[tony roth]

you don't need CSC if you just want folder redirection, but I do agree that the two together can cause conficts.