I thought Windows’ Distributed File System (DFS) was something with ugly hooks into Active Directory and the Registry. While it might, my recent migration of the DFS root from one server to another went smoothly. Most of the information about migrating DFS is wordy and confusing. I’ll attempt to explain the process using my client’s configuration as an example.

The Servers

Two servers with Windows Server 2003 SP1, both domain controllers. SERVERA keeps user profiles and shared data using conventional shares. SERVERB stores large amounts of project data separated into folders and residing on a SCSI-attached RAID-5 system. The DFS root share for the domain is kept on \\SERVERB\E$ in a folder (and share) called \DFSroot\Proj. A domain-wide DFS root called “Proj” points to \\SERVERB\Proj.

The Issue

The RAID system attached to SERVERB is getting long-in-the-tooth and ready for retirement. All of the project data was moved to a new HP Storage Area Network (SAN) but the DFS root was still on volume E of the old RAID. The DFS root must be moved to a different SAN volume on the same server.

The Migration

I found these links (1, 2) the most helpful to describe the process. Here’s what I did:

1. Export the current DFS links:

   dfsutil /root:\\DOMAIN\Proj /export:proj-dfs.txt

2. Remove the DFS links and root using the MMC
3. Run DFSUTIL using the /clean option as specified here
4. Run:

   net stop dfs

   then

   net start dfs

   on SERVERB

5. Delete the folder structure of the old DFS root (volume E, \DFSroot\Proj)
6. Create another folder structure for the new DFS root (volume I, \DFSroot\Proj)
7. Share the new Proj folder and assign NTFS and share permissions accordingly
8. Using the MMC, create a new domain-wide DFS root (called “Proj”) pointing to \\SERVERB\Proj
9. Import the DFS links using:

   dfsutil /root:\\DOMAIN\Proj /import:proj-dfs.txt /set

This took about 20 minutes to accomplish and was easier than I expected. The DFS root is just a “master” share which points to other shares and doesn’t touch (or harm) your data in any way. Of greatest concern is performing the export of the DFS links to save yourself a lot of typing.

The process shouldn’t be much different migrating between servers, however would include additional steps to move data and create folder shares as needed.

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