DFS shares on Win 2003

[The Borg]

Hi all,

Been experimenting with Win 2003 and the DFS. I have a number of machines running a DC farm. These machines have quite a bit of storage space (80 or 160 gig drivers)

I have shared a storage folder on these machines and then linked them to a DFS folder on my Win 2003 server.

I can see his folder and the links from another client, but as soon as I try to connect to the linked shares, I get the following:

"M:\0 - 9 is not accessible
Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password"

M:\ is the local shared folder and 0 - 9 is the folder / link on the remote pc.

I suspect that the unknow iser name etc means that the local client is not recognised by the remote storage PC. But surely the DFS on the Win 2003 server deals with that. I have set the permissions on the remote storage machine to 'everyone'

I also did a search here and this link "DFS" looked promising, but still does not answer my problem.

Please help.

Any comments will be apppreciated.

 

[The Borg]

TTT

 

[bsobel]

A couple questions (I'm still a bit confused about the base problem).

Are these all domain members? Can you connect to the share with those credentals directly? Im not sure what you mean by 'Im sure DFS takes care of it', DFS is a namespace service if you dont have login credentials for a share it doesnt know how to provide them for you.

 

[The Borg]

The base problem is that I cannot access the shared folders via DFS on the Win 2003 machine.

Lets put it this way:

A = Win 2003 server
B = Main machine I work on - Vista
C = DC farm (x12 machines all the same running Win 2k)

I have the storage files and shared folders on C. I have these liniked to a DFS folder on A. I want to access C from B via A.

I can access C directly from B.

I do not have a domain (or controller) and no AD. Don't know how to set that all up. Now even sure it will really help me.

Any help appreciated.

 

[bsobel]

Read the document http://www.microsoft.com/windo...apers/nasusingdfs.mspx here.

Bear in mind you never really access c from b via a. You connect to b connects to a which redirects it to c (the data isnt pumped thru A). Soundsl like a permission problem on the DFS share on A. Are your login credentials the same for that machine as for the 'C' machines? Did you give that credential rights to the dfs share?

 

[The Borg]

Will read article. (Done, not much help, but thanks)

As to the credentials thing, what should I look for? And on which machine?

Have not set up any log in stuff on other machines appart from the "always assume same user" thing with the login per C machine.

Are you refering to the Users and groups stuff? Should / must I set up the whole list on the Win 2003 server box?

Should I have a list like this:

For the DFS share folder on each C - "everyone"
For the DFS share on A - B, C1, C2, ... , C12.

I always struggle with this permissions stuff. I eventually get tot he place I want to but it usually means using the Admin access and password, which I know is not right and just a fudge. I think it is catching me here.

Thanks for the help so far and Happy New Year!!!

 

[The Borg]

Edited mistakes and ^TTT^

 

[err]

hmmm this should be real easy to setup... Are you accessing the DFS share remotely? Or you are clicking on the DFS share locally on the DFS root server? The later might be a problem as it is not allowed to do so...

Anyway here are the quick and dirty 1 minute guide to DFS

1. Make sure all computer are in the same domain.
2. Create a share on file server (i.e: \\fileserver\share1). Make sure permissions are set correctly and make sure clients can browse to the share directly by typing \\fileserver\share1
3. go to your DFS root server and create new DFS root. When asked for a folder to share for DFS, point it to something like c:\dfs. This will automatically share c:\dfs. For this example lets name the root "dfsroot"
4. Go to dfs admin tool on your root server. Create a new DFS link. name the link share1. Point it to \\fileserver\share1. After done, right click on the DFS shortcut and check status. Make sure its green.
5. You're done.
6. Test it from client side by typing \\domainname\dfsroot\share1

Thats it... all to it for DFS. Should be piece of cake, considering your domain setup are correct, dns are resolving properly and permissions are properly set.

Have fun

 

[The Borg]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry, still not working.

First off, I am not running a domain, so 1. may be a problem.

Steps 2 - 6 all done as stated.

As stated before, what should I check regarding the permissions?

 

[dclive]

Domain isn't required (but in the real world, you'd be in a domain).

Read more here on standalone DFS: http://www.expresscomputeronli...0412/techspace01.shtml