Thanks Guido (an Jorge) for the info. Great stuff as always. I really appreciate it.


From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Grillenmeier, Guido
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 1:49 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] dfs replica list storage?

Hello Darren - the data is stored differently for the DFS root replicas (i.e. the list of servers hosting a DFS root) and replicas of a link target (i.e. the list of servers hosting the shared data which is being replicated by some means, by default via FRS).
 
For the first you'll find an ftDfs object for every domain based (fault tolerant) DFS root, which is stored in the respective domain's "CN=Dfs-Configuration,CN=System,DC=mydom,DC=com" container.  That's true for all DFS roots but SYSVOL, which is the default root for all DCs of a domain and not defined separately. For all the "normal" DFS roots check the "remoteServerName" attribute, which lists all the servers which are acting as root replicas for the respective root.  The evaluation of which server belongs to which site and should thus be listed first when the referral-list is returned to the client, happens at runtime when the client requests a referral (it's obviously cached somewhere). This is for Win2003 - in Win2000, the site data was stored in the DFS metadata (causing issues when machines moved to different sites...)
 
You won't find an attribute for the list of link target servers, which is completely stored in the DFS root's metadata - again without site-specific data in Win2003, but 2000 still stores this data (ignored by Win2003 if it exists). The link target's site in 2003 is evaluated at runtime.  If the data is being replicated via FRS, you'll see corresponding objects being created in the "CN=File Replication Service,CN=System,DC=mydom,DC=com" container.
 
As such, the client doesn't query any site specific DFS data ="" it's the server side of DFS that evaluates the client's IP address and then figures out the site it belongs to, which then allows it to build up the correct referral list.
 
/Guido
 
 
 
 


From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Darren Mar-Elia
Sent: Montag, 20. Juni 2005 20:20
To: [email protected]
Subject: [ActiveDir] dfs replica list storage?

Someone asked me this question and I don't think I have ever checked into it. Is the list of DCs available to serve up a given DFS replica (e.g. SYSVOL) for a given site, stored in AD somewhere? If so, where? I couldn't find anything obvious within the site-specific storage areas. In other words, what does a client query, exactly, to get its referral list for DFS?
 
Darren
 
Darren Mar-Elia
CTO, Windows Management
Microsoft MVP, Windows Server-Group Policy
Quest Software
+1 (415) 342-4185
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.quest.com
 

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