New five-part blog series on DFS Replication

Ned Pyle, a Senior Escalation Support Engineer with the Directory Services team at Microsoft, has just started a new blog series focusing on DFS Replication. Here’s how he introduces it: Hello folks, Ned here again to kick off a new five-part series on DFSR. With the release of Windows Server 2008 R2, the … Continue reading New five-part blog series on DFS Replication →

Using the multiple NICs of your File Server running Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2)

IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog post was created before the release of Windows Server 2012, which introduced SMB 3.0 and the new SMB Multichannel feature and significantly improved SMB's ability to use multiple network interfaces. You can read more about SMB Multichannel at http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2012/06/28/the-basics-of-smb-multichannel-a-feature-of-windows-server-2012-and-smb-3-0.aspx ------------------------------------------------------ 1 - Overview When you set up a … Continue reading Using the multiple NICs of your File Server running Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2) →

SNIA’s Storage Developers Conference 2010 is just a few weeks away

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is hosting the 7th Storage Developer Conference (SDC) in the Hyatt Regency in beautiful Santa Clara, CA (Silicon Valley) on the week of September 20th. As usual, Microsoft is underwriting the CIFS/SMB/SMB2 Plugfest, which is co-located with the SDC event. For developers working with storage-related technologies, this event gathers … Continue reading SNIA’s Storage Developers Conference 2010 is just a few weeks away →

Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008 R2

I am often asked about File Server performance. The usual conversation evolves into a discussion on what registry settings would be recommend to make a file server work faster. We typically end up talking about specific settings for performance tuning and how they might affect application compatibility, prevent connection with older client versions, produce unwanted results in specific … Continue reading Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008 R2 →

The difference between a 2TB SATA drive and the storage provided by your IT department

Every once in a while the question comes up. How come my IT department is charging me tens of dollars per gigabyte of storage for my application per month when I can pay less than 15 cents per gigabyte at Best Buy (where a 2TB drive might cost less than $150)? The conversation then includes long discussions … Continue reading The difference between a 2TB SATA drive and the storage provided by your IT department →

Multiple names for one computer – Consolidate your SMB file servers without breaking UNC paths

Overview This blog post covers a few different ways to consolidate multiple SMB file servers and keep exposing the consolidated file shares under the old share paths. Scenario Let’s say you currently have 3 file servers named file1.contoso.local, file2.contoso.local and file3.contoso.local and you want to consolidate them into a single Windows Server computer called cfile.contoso.local. … Continue reading Multiple names for one computer – Consolidate your SMB file servers without breaking UNC paths →

Where to find DFSUTIL.EXE for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2

DFSUTIL.EXE is a command line tool to manage Windows Server DFS Namespaces. In Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2, DFSUTIL.EXE was included as part of the “Windows Server Support Tools” in the Windows Server CD. A common question by DFS administrators upgrading to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is “Where … Continue reading Where to find DFSUTIL.EXE for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 →

How to rename a Windows Server running DFS Namespaces (DFS-N)

A user asked me recently if there is a prescribed way to rename an existing DFS-N server. More precisely, she asked if simply renaming a server hosting a DFS Namespace would lead to messed up Active Directory pointers, links, link targets, etc. I asked the team and the answer depends on whether you are running … Continue reading How to rename a Windows Server running DFS Namespaces (DFS-N) →

Best Practices Analyzer for Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services available for download

Quick blog post to let you know that information about the Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) for Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services has been published.It includes several rules for the configuration, operation, performance and security of the SMB, NFS, DFS-N, DFS-R and FSRM. Get detailed documentation at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff633443(WS.10).aspx Download the BPA directly from Windows Update or … Continue reading Best Practices Analyzer for Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services available for download →