Optimize Namespace Polling

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008

To maintain a consistent domain-based namespace across namespace servers, it is necessary for namespace servers to periodically poll Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) to obtain the most current namespace data. You can use this procedure to optimize how this polling occurs.

To optimize namespace polling

  1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DFS Management.

  2. In the console tree, under the Namespaces node, right-click a domain-based namespace, and then click Properties.

  3. On the Advanced tab, select whether the namespace will be optimized for consistency or scalability.

    • Choose Optimize for consistency if there are 16 or fewer namespace servers hosting the namespace.

    • Choose Optimize for scalability if there are more than 16 namespace servers. This reduces the load on the Primary Domain Controller (PDC) Emulator, but increases the time it requires for changes to the namespace to replicate to all namespace servers. Until changes replicate to all servers, users might have an inconsistent view of the namespace.

Note

Namespace servers running Windows 2000 Server continue to poll the PDC emulator every hour by default, even if you enable Optimize for scalability on the namespace.

Additional references