Basic Dfs Concepts

  • Article

Windows 2000 Dfs comes in two configurations: domain-based and stand-alone.

Domain-based Dfs stores its configuration information in Active Directory. Because this information is made available on multiple domain controllers in the domain, domain-based Dfs provides high availability for any distributed file system in the domain. A domain-based Dfs root has the following characteristics:

  • It must be hosted on a Windows 2000 domain member server.

  • It has its topology published automatically to Active Directory.

  • It can have root-level shared folders.

  • It supports root and file replication through the File Replication service (FRS).

Stand-alone Dfs stores its configuration in the registry of the local computer. It is intended for backward compatibility with previous versions of Dfs. A stand-alone Dfs root has the following characteristics:

  • It does not use Active Directory (or FRS).

  • It cannot have replicas at the root level.

New Dfs implementations must use a domain-based configuration to take advantage of Active Directory. Stand-alone Dfs is best for earlier implementations of Dfs.