Microsoft® Windows Storage Server 2003 White Paper
Distributed File System (DFS)
The Distributed File System enables the system administrator to create single hierarchical mapping of
all systems and shares on the network. By uniting files on different computers into a single
namespace, users do not have to sort through a network of dozens of servers, each with their own
separate directory structure, but instead see the files as if they resided on a single computer.
With the latest version of the server operating system, DFS has been enhanced to allow multiple DFS
roots on a single server, thus reducing administrative and hardware costs of managing multiple
namespaces and multiple replicated namespaces. In addition, DFS now delivers more reliable load-
balancing, better file replication between DFS sites and servers, and closest-site selection for users
accessing the network. Closest-site selection ensures that in the event of server failure or scheduled
maintenance, users are automatically routed to another server on the network that has a replica of
the data. For best performance and lowest cost, clients are rerouted to the site closest to them.
