[OmniOS-discuss] DFS Replication with CIFS shares

[Lawrence Giam]

Hi All,

I am looking at setting up DFS replication with CIFS shares where I have a
Windows DFS namespace and I have multiple target folder, is it possible to
get DFS Replication working?

Googling on the web shows results that say the DFS target have to be
windows filesystem
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/e37d0a9a-1759-487c-a560-b5ba60220892/dfs-replication-wont-work-with-2008-dfs-front-end-and-2-cifs-shares-on-netapp?forum=winserverfiles

So my setup is that the SAN/NAS is running OmniOS that provides the CIFS to
the Windows server and with that I have setup DFS namespace with a single
target folder. When I tried to add another target folder to the DFS
namespace,the system prompted me if I want to create a replication group.
Proceeding forward, I got the error saying "The member is running a down
level operating system".

Any help?

Thanks & Regards.

[Jim Oltman]

Post by Lawrence Giam
Hi All,
I am looking at setting up DFS replication with CIFS shares where I have a
Windows DFS namespace and I have multiple target folder, is it possible to
get DFS Replication working?
Googling on the web shows results that say the DFS target have to be
windows filesystem
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/e37d0a9a-1759-487c-a560-b5ba60220892/dfs-replication-wont-work-with-2008-dfs-front-end-and-2-cifs-shares-on-netapp?forum=winserverfiles
So my setup is that the SAN/NAS is running OmniOS that provides the CIFS
to the Windows server and with that I have setup DFS namespace with a
single target folder. When I tried to add another target folder to the DFS
namespace,the system prompted me if I want to create a replication group.
Proceeding forward, I got the error saying "The member is running a down
level operating system".
Any help?
Thanks & Regards.

When I was faced with this, I chose to share out zVols via iSCSI to the
Windows machine. It made DFS so much simpler.

Jim

[Lawrence Giam]

Hi Jim,

Can you explain more on this? You share out the zVols via iSCSI to the
Windows machine, so on the windows machine, you attach that zVols as a disk?

But in my situation, I have alot of smb shares serve from the NAS and doing
it your way, would I be then face with drive letter limitation?

Regards.

Post by Jim Oltman

Post by Lawrence Giam
Hi All,
I am looking at setting up DFS replication with CIFS shares where I have
a Windows DFS namespace and I have multiple target folder, is it possible
to get DFS Replication working?
Googling on the web shows results that say the DFS target have to be
windows filesystem
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/e37d0a9a-1759-487c-a560-b5ba60220892/dfs-replication-wont-work-with-2008-dfs-front-end-and-2-cifs-shares-on-netapp?forum=winserverfiles
So my setup is that the SAN/NAS is running OmniOS that provides the CIFS
to the Windows server and with that I have setup DFS namespace with a
single target folder. When I tried to add another target folder to the DFS
namespace,the system prompted me if I want to create a replication group.
Proceeding forward, I got the error saying "The member is running a down
level operating system".
Any help?
Thanks & Regards.

When I was faced with this, I chose to share out zVols via iSCSI to the
Windows machine. It made DFS so much simpler.
Jim

[Jim Oltman]

Post by Lawrence Giam
Hi Jim,
Can you explain more on this? You share out the zVols via iSCSI to the
Windows machine, so on the windows machine, you attach that zVols as a disk?
But in my situation, I have alot of smb shares serve from the NAS and
doing it your way, would I be then face with drive letter limitation?
Regards.

I would create one or 2 large zVols, share them via iSCSI to your Windows
machines. Then I'd format those as NTFS. You can then create folders in
those disk LUNs. Create something like this:

D:\shares\share1
D:\shares\share2
D:\shares\etc
E:\shares\share3
etc

Then, CIFS share each one of the "shareX" folders. You can then tell DFS
which shares on your server to use for a DFS namespace:

\\server\share1
\\server\share2
\\server\share3

Point DFS at those CIFS shares.