The Storage Team Blog about file services and storage features in Windows Server, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
DFSUtil.exe in Windows Server 2008 comes with a new CLI, which is based on Keywords, Required Parameters and Optional parameters instead of Switches and Arguments. With this change, we intend to make the usage of the commands clearer and easier.
Navigation through Keywords is more friendly, giving the information needed to execute a task.
An example of this:
To create the new Domain-Based Namespace Projects which is going to have a Root Target at the Server NewYork, with the old CLI the user had to type
DFSUtil.exe /AddFtRoot /Server:\\NewYork /Share:Projects /Comment:”Projects in New York”
With the new CLI
DFSUtil.exe Root AddDom \\NewYork\Projects “Projects in New York”
The new CLI not only gives the necessary information for the task to be executed, but display hints to help resolve tasks related as in when you are creating a namespace you would like to add root targets to it.
2. New features in DFSUtil.exe
Creation of Windows 2008 mode Domain-based namespaces.
DFSUtil.exe Root AddDom \\Server\Share <Version> <Comment>
For Version you can choose: V1: Windows 2000, Windows 2003 mode namespace. V2: Windows 2008 mode namespace.
DFSUtil.exe Root AddDom \\contoso.com\DomainNamespace “This is a V2 Namespace!!”
Add and remove Links
DFSUtil.exe Link Add <DFSPath> \\Server\Share [Restore] <Comment> DFSUtil.exe Link Remove <DFSPath> DFSUtil.exe Link Add \\contoso.com\DomainNamespace\Link \\Server\Share “This a new link”
Display and/or change the state of Roots and Links
DFSUtil.exe Property State <DFSPath> \\Server\Share
State commands:
Online: Set state of link or link target to Online Offline: Set state of link or link target to Offline
DFSUtil.exe Property State \\contoso.com\DomainNamespace\Link DFSUtil.exe Property State Online \\contoso.com\DomainNamespace\Link
Display and/or change TTL
DFSUtil.exe Property TTL <DFSPath>
TTL commands:
Set: Set the Timeout value of a DFS namespace or DFS link.
DFSUtil.exe Property TTL Set <DFSPath> <Value in ms> DFSUtil.exe Property TTL Set \\contoso.com\DomainNamespace 3000
Resolve DFS path to a destination UNC path
DFSUtil.exe Diag ViewDFSPath <DFSPath> DFSUtil.exe Diag ViewDFSPath \\contoso.com\DomainNamespace
Display and/or Set Registry Configuration Parameters in Server and Clients
For Server
DFSUtil.exe Server Registry Registry commands: DFSDNSConfig: Set/Reset/View DFSDNSConfig key LDAPTimeoutValue: Set/Reset/View LDAPTimeoutValueInSeconds key SyncInterval: Set/Reset/View SyncIntervalinSeconds key SiteCostedReferrals: Set/Reset/View SiteCostedReferrals key. InsiteReferrals: Set/Reset/View InsiteReferrals key. PreferLogonDC: Set/Reset/View PreferLogonDC key
DFSUtil.exe Server Registry
Registry commands:
DFSDNSConfig: Set/Reset/View DFSDNSConfig key LDAPTimeoutValue: Set/Reset/View LDAPTimeoutValueInSeconds key SyncInterval: Set/Reset/View SyncIntervalinSeconds key SiteCostedReferrals: Set/Reset/View SiteCostedReferrals key. InsiteReferrals: Set/Reset/View InsiteReferrals key. PreferLogonDC: Set/Reset/View PreferLogonDC key
For Client:
DFSUtil.exe Client Registry Registry commands: ProviderCacheTimeout: Set/View the ProviderCacheTimeoutInMinutes key. DFSDCNameDelay: Set/Reset/View the DFSDCNameDelay key.
DFSUtil.exe Client Registry
ProviderCacheTimeout: Set/View the ProviderCacheTimeoutInMinutes key. DFSDCNameDelay: Set/Reset/View the DFSDCNameDelay key.
Enable/Disable Access Based Directory Enumeration (ABDE) in the Domain-based/Standalone namespace.
DFSUtil.exe Property ABDE<DFSPath> DFSUtil.exe Property ABDE \\contoso.com\DomainNamespace
Manage Security attributes on DFS Links
DFSUtil.exe Property ACL <DFSPath>
ACL commands:
Grant: Grant permissions for a user or group. Deny: Deny permissions for a user or group. Revoke: Revoke granted permissions for a user or group. Set: Set Security Information on the folder from SDDL input Reset: Remove the Security Descriptor associated with the link. Control: Set Security control information on the link.
John Angel Diaz
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P.S.: See also this post with a complete reference of the DFSUTIL command-line:http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2009/05/01/using-the-windows-server-2008-dfsutil-exe-command-line-to-manage-dfs-namespaces.aspx
PingBack from http://www.ditii.com/2008/07/15/dfsutil-windows-server-2003-vs-windows-server-2008/
Ask the Directory Services Team : Five Common Causes of “Waiting for the DFS Replication service to retrieve
Can you tell me if there is a CLI for building DFS replication?
It looks like when using the "DFSUtil link add" command, it puts everything in lowercase when it creates the link. For example:
dfsutil link add "\\Mydomain.pri\Links\Test\This is A Test" "\\fileserver1\share\This is A Test"
The DFS link it creates is "this is a test" instead of "This is A Test".
This is quite anoying, and frankly I don't understand why it would even do this. Is there a work around for this?
Hi, Nelson,
Quoting Ganesh in the dfs_frs newsgroups:
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Thanks for reporting this issue. This is a know issue in dfsutil.
As a work around please use dfscmd /map to create links in dfs namespace.
Thanks
Ganesh
Hope it helps,
--Malu
Hi
I have a problem with my DFS setup running Windows Server 2008. It's Active Directory integrated.
If a client doesn't have our fqdn as as dns search suffix the client cannot resolve the dfs. I guess this is due to the server replying with the netbios name instead of the dns name. I've set the DFSDNSConfig to 1 on both my dfs servers, but I am unsure if I need to delete the whole namespace and create it again as this article describes for Win2003. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244380
Can any of you guys point me in the right direction?
Sebastian