DFS Management

  • Article

Updated: October 16, 2013

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

Distributed File System is implemented as a role service of the File Services role. Distributed File System consists of two role services:

  • DFS Namespaces

  • DFS Replication

To manage DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication, you can use the DFS Management snap-in hosted by Server Manager, or you can use the DFS Management snap-in from the Administrative Tools folder. Or you can use command prompt tools, as discussed later in this topic.

Important

To view or manage replication groups that contain read-only replicated folders or members that are failover clusters, you must use the version of DFS Management that is included with Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2008 R2.

For more information about DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication, see the following topics:

Managing DFS from a Windows PowerShell session

To manage Distributed File System from a Windows PowerShell session, you can use the Windows PowerShell module for DFS Namespaces (introduced with Windows Server 2012 and newer) and the Windows PowerShell module for DFS Replication (introduced with Windows Server 2012 R2).

Managing DFS from a Command Prompt

To manage Distributed File System from a command prompt you can use the commands listed in the following table, or write scripts that use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).

Command Description

DfsUtil

Manages DFS namespaces, server and client computers.

DfsCmd

Configures DFS folders and folder targets in a DFS namespace.

DfsDiag

Performs diagnostics tests of DFS Namespaces.

DfsrAdmin

Manages DFS Replication replicated folders.

DfsrDiag

Performs diagnostic tests of DFS Replication.

Additional references