We’re seeing an intermittent issue with DFS namespaces.
First, some background information. We are using a domain-based DFS namespace in order to provide access to all of the company’s file shares. TheDFS namespace has several folder targets that point to the physical file server locations. DFS-R is also in use, but each folder target only has one active target (all active targets are to the same file server – this is to ensure users do not access or write to the 2nd server due to the write conflict issues this can cause). TheDFS namespace is running in 2008 level, meaning the domain is at 2008 native mode. There are 2 Windows 2008 R2 domain controllers, 1 physical and 1 virtual (all in the same datacenter) and both are namespace servers. I have checked AD and DNS and have found no problems at all with the configuration (DCDiag is clean, DNS has no extraneous root DNS servers from upgrades, etc).
The problem that we’re intermittently seeing is that users are unable to browse the DFS namespace. They will log in, have their network drives map to the namespace, and a few hours later will have all drives go to the disconnected state. During this time, the user will get an error saying that the network location is unavailable if he/she tries to access one of their file shares. Similarly, if the user tries to browse the namespace manually by going to \\domain.com\namespace, the folder targets initially do not show up (aka they get a blank screen). If the user waits long enough, the targets eventually show up & the network drives begin to work again as soon as it does.
This problem seems more network related – we had a poorly configured STP topology that was introducing topology changes regularly which we have since cleaned up, and while this issue is happening less frequently now it is still occurring on occasion. I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this type of problem, and if so how did you solve it?
Any suggestions are appreciated.
First, some background information. We are using a domain-based DFS namespace in order to provide access to all of the company’s file shares. TheDFS namespace has several folder targets that point to the physical file server locations. DFS-R is also in use, but each folder target only has one active target (all active targets are to the same file server – this is to ensure users do not access or write to the 2nd server due to the write conflict issues this can cause). TheDFS namespace is running in 2008 level, meaning the domain is at 2008 native mode. There are 2 Windows 2008 R2 domain controllers, 1 physical and 1 virtual (all in the same datacenter) and both are namespace servers. I have checked AD and DNS and have found no problems at all with the configuration (DCDiag is clean, DNS has no extraneous root DNS servers from upgrades, etc).
The problem that we’re intermittently seeing is that users are unable to browse the DFS namespace. They will log in, have their network drives map to the namespace, and a few hours later will have all drives go to the disconnected state. During this time, the user will get an error saying that the network location is unavailable if he/she tries to access one of their file shares. Similarly, if the user tries to browse the namespace manually by going to \\domain.com\namespace, the folder targets initially do not show up (aka they get a blank screen). If the user waits long enough, the targets eventually show up & the network drives begin to work again as soon as it does.
This problem seems more network related – we had a poorly configured STP topology that was introducing topology changes regularly which we have since cleaned up, and while this issue is happening less frequently now it is still occurring on occasion. I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this type of problem, and if so how did you solve it?
Any suggestions are appreciated.