DFS Namespaces with offline files

Hello,

is it supported to mark DFS namespace folders to be available offline? What
happens when a user moves to a different site and the referals are
redirected to a different (may be not synced) folder?

Client is XP and Vista.

thank you very much.

ondrej.

Works perfectly.
As far as the client is concerned it is just a path, resolved by the DFS
client service.
Of course if you have two replicas out of sync then the synchronisation of
what is up to date or not will be different, but that is a problem with the
synchronisation, not with Offline files.
Anthony,
http://www.airdesk.com


"Ondrej Sevecek" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:uEk2H5u$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello,
>
> is it supported to mark DFS namespace folders to be available offline?
> What happens when a user moves to a different site and the referals are
> redirected to a different (may be not synced) folder?
>
> Client is XP and Vista.
>
> thank you very much.
>
> ondrej.
>
>

so what happens, when this is the setup:

SMB physical shares out of sync:
\\srvA\shareA\fileX version 1
\\srvB\shareM\fileX version 2

combined into DFSN hierarchy:
\\domain.local\DFS\share --> \\srvA\shareA, \\srvB\shareM

klient accesses \\domain.local\DFS\share\fileX and marks it as available
offline while reffered to srvA.

what happens when the users is switched to the srvB's referal?


ondra.



"Anthony [MVP]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:8E92E7E5-4F43-43E2-A3EE-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Works perfectly.
> As far as the client is concerned it is just a path, resolved by the DFS
> client service.
> Of course if you have two replicas out of sync then the synchronisation of
> what is up to date or not will be different, but that is a problem with
> the synchronisation, not with Offline files.
> Anthony,
> http://www.airdesk.com
>
>
> "Ondrej Sevecek" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:uEk2H5u$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hello,
>>
>> is it supported to mark DFS namespace folders to be available offline?
>> What happens when a user moves to a different site and the referals are
>> redirected to a different (may be not synced) folder?
>>
>> Client is XP and Vista.
>>
>> thank you very much.
>>
>> ondrej.
>>
>>

Hello ondrej,

Thank you for posting here.

Q: is it supported to mark DFS namespace folders to be available offline?

Generally speaking, we can enable available offline for DFS namespace share
folders. However, there is some limitation on the scenario. For the
limitation of using DFS, Offline Files, redirected folder, please refer to
the section "Q. Can I use DFS with Offline Files and redirected My
Documents folders?" in the following link.

Distributed File System: Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...ew/dfsfaq.mspx

Support for DFS-based shares for Offline Files
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=262845

Q: What happens when a user moves to a different site and the referrals are
redirected to a different (may be not synced) folder?
A: There could be cause some inconsistence of the shared folder on that
server in the new site the users move to.

Hope it helps.

David Shen
Microsoft Online Technical Support

Hi ondrej,

I want to see if the information provided was helpful. Please keep us
posted on your progress and let us know if you have any additional
questions or concerns.

We are looking forward to your response.

David Shen
Microsoft Online Technical Support

Ondrej,
I don't think offline files will attempt to resynchronize server files that
are an earlier version than the cached version, where the cached version has
not changed offline. If the server version reverts to an earlier version, I
think the offline cache will not know and will ignore.
DFS is not involved, except as the mechanism whereby you ended up with a
server folder having an earlier version than previously cached,
Anthony
http://www.airdesk.com



"Ondrej Sevecek" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:e4$Vbk6$(E-Mail Removed)...
> so what happens, when this is the setup:
>
> SMB physical shares out of sync:
> \\srvA\shareA\fileX version 1
> \\srvB\shareM\fileX version 2
>
> combined into DFSN hierarchy:
> \\domain.local\DFS\share --> \\srvA\shareA, \\srvB\shareM
>
> klient accesses \\domain.local\DFS\share\fileX and marks it as available
> offline while reffered to srvA.
>
> what happens when the users is switched to the srvB's referal?
>
>
> ondra.
>
>
>
> "Anthony [MVP]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:8E92E7E5-4F43-43E2-A3EE-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Works perfectly.
>> As far as the client is concerned it is just a path, resolved by the DFS
>> client service.
>> Of course if you have two replicas out of sync then the synchronisation
>> of what is up to date or not will be different, but that is a problem
>> with the synchronisation, not with Offline files.
>> Anthony,
>> http://www.airdesk.com
>>
>>
>> "Ondrej Sevecek" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:uEk2H5u$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> is it supported to mark DFS namespace folders to be available offline?
>>> What happens when a user moves to a different site and the referals are
>>> redirected to a different (may be not synced) folder?
>>>
>>> Client is XP and Vista.
>>>
>>> thank you very much.
>>>
>>> ondrej.
>>>
>>>
>

Hello ondrej,

SMB physical shares out of sync:

\\srvA\shareA\fileX version 1
\\srvB\shareM\fileX version 2

combined into DFSN hierarchy:
\\domain.local\DFS\share --> \\srvA\shareA , \\srvB\shareM

Client accesses \\domain.local\DFS\share\fileX and marks it as available
offline while referred to srvA.

Based on above scenario, the client user will see file from srvB on Windows
Vista client. In online state user will always see file from the active
target if it was not modified at client while it was offline.

For Windows XP and Windows Vista clients, if there is no modification to a
file in the cache, the server would considered to be authoritative.
Windows XP would have to synchronize from the cache to the server, in order
for that it is to be reflected since when working online everything is done
from the server (not cache).

Meanwhile, it is not recommend to make highly dynamic data be replicated
with DFSR or FRS, like user folders.

Hope this can be helpful.

David Shen
Microsoft Online Technical Support

thank you. this was exhaustive.

thank you very much.

ondrej.


"David Shen [MSFT]" <v-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello ondrej,
>
> SMB physical shares out of sync:
>
> \\srvA\shareA\fileX version 1
> \\srvB\shareM\fileX version 2
>
> combined into DFSN hierarchy:
> \\domain.local\DFS\share --> \\srvA\shareA , \\srvB\shareM
>
> Client accesses \\domain.local\DFS\share\fileX and marks it as available
> offline while referred to srvA.
>
> Based on above scenario, the client user will see file from srvB on
> Windows
> Vista client. In online state user will always see file from the active
> target if it was not modified at client while it was offline.
>
> For Windows XP and Windows Vista clients, if there is no modification to a
> file in the cache, the server would considered to be authoritative.
> Windows XP would have to synchronize from the cache to the server, in
> order
> for that it is to be reflected since when working online everything is
> done
> from the server (not cache).
>
> Meanwhile, it is not recommend to make highly dynamic data be replicated
> with DFSR or FRS, like user folders.
>
> Hope this can be helpful.
>
> David Shen
> Microsoft Online Technical Support
>

Hello ondrej,

I am glad to hear the information is helpful for you.

David Shen
Microsoft Online Technical Support