DFS Namespace issue shortcuts with network shares containing shortcuts of themselves

Imaad Jamil 0 Reputation points
2024-05-01T07:13:46.07+00:00

I've got an issue with network shares containing shortcuts of themselves.  This creates and endless loop when searching, among other issues. When attempting to delete the shortcuts, I would receive errors. Using fsutil i was able to find that these shortcuts are DFS Reparsepoints, and also was able to remove the reparsepoints and delete the folders (article).  But they kept coming back.

It took a really long time, but I finally figured out that each of the shares with this issue has a DFS Namespace set up, and I believe that the issue is how the targets were created. For instance the shares with this problem exist as such: \Server1\Share1 and \Server2\Share1 (these are replicated to each other). The namespace is listed as \DomainName\Share but its namespace path is \DomainName\Share1\Share1.  I believe this is causing the namespace to create this reparsepoint INSIDE the share instead of AS the share.

I hope this isn't coming across as gibberish. How do I fix this?  I can't simply edit the namespace path, and I'm afraid deleting the namespace itself will break everything.

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