DFS on 2003 R2 w/o WINS
DennisT
I have a question about DFS in a non WINS environment. The setup:
Server 1 - A DC, NT2003 R2 x64 SP2. Also does DNS.
Server 2 - Same config, another DC. Does DNS.
Both are catalog servers and both are namespace servers for the DFS
shares.
DNS is both domains is AD integrated. Everything is on one subnet.
I'm in the middle of a domain restructure (2000 to 2003). DFS is in
the new (2003) domain. All PCs are still in the old (2000) domain.
There is a trust between the domains.
The new domain is totally TCPIP. No WINS and no NetBios. All the PCs
(XP/2000 Pro) have NetBios turned off.
The servers in the 2000 domain still provide and use WINS/NetBios. A
check of the WINS database shows WINS only contains the 2000 domain
servers info. No PCs or 2003 domain servers appear in WINS.
I have user roamimg profiles and home folders set up in DFS.
Redirected folders are also in the same namespace. This is all working
as desired without a problem. Users access this data using the FQDN,
ie. \\ourdomain.local\User\Home\%USERNAME%
I came across "How DFS Works in Environments Without WINS" in How DFS
Works (http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/20ffb860-
f802-455c-9ca2-5194f79a9eb41033.mspx?mfr=true). It states that I must
create the DFSDnsConfig key and R&R namespaces/etc. to use DFS in a
non WINS/NetBios environment.
??? I haven't done this and I've confirmed the DFSDnsConfig key
doesn't exist. DFS appears to be working fine. Users can access DFS
data w/o a problem. Other than an occasional file in use error there
are no DFS errors in the server error logs.
Have I interpreted the article incorrectly or is it no longer valid?
Maybe because I installed the DCs initally w/o WINS/Netbios I somehow
avoided this requirement?