Microsoft SQL Server on NetApp Storage Systems SnapDrive 6.1 for Windows: Install, Operate, and Troubleshoot OBJECTIVES By the end of this course you should be able to: Explain Microsoft SharePoint Server on NetApp storage systems terminology and architecture Plan the deployment of SharePoint on NetApp storage systems with considerations for.
Guidelines to build a storage infrastructure for Windows File Services. It describes the typical deployment-related best practices used by system administrators and architects for integration with Microsoft® Active Directory® and services, securing and optimizing NetApp storage systems using CIFS or SMB 2.0 protocol.

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Distributed File Systems Namespaces, commonly referred to as DFS Namespaces or DFS-N, is a Windows Server server role that is widely used to simplify the deployment and maintenance of SMB file shares in production. DFS Namespaces is a storage namespace virtualization technology, which means that it enables you to provide a layer of indirection between the UNC path of your file shares and the actual file shares themselves. DFS Namespaces works with SMB file shares, agnostic of those file shares are hosted: it can be used with SMB shares hosted on an on-premises Windows File Server with or without Azure File Sync, Azure file shares directly, SMB file shares hosted in Azure NetApp Files or other third-party offerings, and even with file shares hosted in other clouds.

At its core, DFS Namespaces provides a mapping between a user-friendly UNC path, like contososharesProjectX and the underlying UNC path of the SMB share like Server01-ProdProjectX or storageaccount.file.core.windows.netprojectx. When the end user wants to navigate to their file share, they type in the user-friendly UNC path, but their SMB client accesses the underlying SMB path of the mapping. You can also extend this basic concept to take over an existing file server name, such as MyServerProjectX. You can use this capability to achieve the following scenarios:

Provide a migration-proof name for a logical set of data. In this example, you have a mapping like contososharesEngineering that maps to OldServerEngineering. When you complete your migration to Azure Files, you can change your mapping so your user-friendly UNC path points to storageaccount.file.core.windows.netengineering. When an end user accesses the user-friendly UNC path, they will be seamlessly redirected to the Azure file share path.
Establish a common name for a logical set of data that is distributed to multiple servers at different physical sites, such as through Azure File Sync. In this example, a name such as contososharesFileSyncExample is mapped to multiple UNC paths such as FileSyncServer1ExampleShare, FileSyncServer2DifferentShareName, FileSyncServer3ExampleShare. How to download medieval 2 total war. When the user accesses the user-friendly UNC, they are given a list of possible UNC paths and choose the one closest to them based on Windows Server Active Directory (AD) site definitions.
Extend a logical set of data across size, IO, or other scale thresholds. This is common when dealing with user directories, where every user gets their own folder on a share, or with scratch shares, where users get arbitrary space to handle temporary data needs. With DFS Namespaces, you stitch together multiple folders into a cohesive namespace. For example, contososharesUserSharesuser1 maps to storageaccount.file.core.windows.netuser1, contososharesUserSharesuser2 maps to storageaccount.file.core.windows.netuser2, and so on.

You can see an example of how to use DFS Namespaces with your Azure Files deployment in the following video overview.

Deploying Microsoft Dfs With Netapp Storage Systems

Note

Skip to 10:10 in the video to see how to set up DFS Namespaces.

If you already have a DFS Namespace in place, no special steps are required to use it with Azure Files and File Sync. If you're accessing your Azure file share from on-premises, normal networking considerations apply; see Azure Files networking considerations for more information.

Namespace types

DFS Namespaces provides two main namespace types:

Domain-based namespace: A namespace hosted as part of your Windows Server AD domain. Namespaces hosted as part of AD will have a UNC path containing the name of your domain, for example, contoso.comsharesmyshare, if your domain is contoso.com. Domain-based namespaces support larger scale limits and built-in redundancy through AD. Domain-based namespaces can't be a clustered resource on a failover cluster.
Standalone namespace: A namespace hosted on an individual server, not hosted as part of Windows Server AD. Standalone namespaces will have a name based on the name of the standalone server, such as MyStandaloneServersharesmyshare, where your standalone server is named MyStandaloneServer. Standalone namespaces support lower scale targets than domain-based namespaces but can be hosted as a clustered resource on a failover cluster.

Requirements

To use DFS Namespaces with Azure Files and File Sync, you must have the following resources:

An Active Directory domain. This can be hosted anywhere you like, such as on-premises, in an Azure virtual machine (VM), or even in another cloud.
A Windows Server that can host the namespace. A common pattern deployment pattern for DFS Namespaces is to use the Active Directory domain controller to host the namespaces, however the namespaces can be setup from any server with the DFS Namespaces server role installed. DFS Namespaces is available on all supported Windows Server versions.
An SMB file share hosted in a domain-joined environment, such as an Azure file share hosted within a domain-joined storage account, or a file share hosted on a domain-joined Windows File Server using Azure File Sync. For more on domain-joining your storage account, see Identity-based authentication. Windows File Servers are domain-joined the same way regardless of whether you are using Azure File Sync.
The SMB file shares you want to use with DFS Namespaces must be reachable from your on-premises networks. This is primarily a concern for Azure file shares, however, technically applies to any file share hosted in Azure or any other cloud. For more information on networking, see Networking considerations for direct access.

Install the DFS Namespaces server role

If you are already using DFS Namespaces, or wish to set up DFS Namespaces on your domain controller, you may safely skip these steps.

To install the DFS Namespaces server role, open the Server Manager on your server. Select Manage, and then select Add Roles and Features. The resulting wizard guides you through the installation of the necessary Windows components to run and manage DFS Namespaces.

In the Installation Type section of the installation wizard, select the Role-based or feature-based installation radio button and select Next. On the Server Selection section, select the desired server(s) on which you would like to install the DFS Namespaces server role, and select Next.

In the Server Roles section, select and check the DFS Namespaces role from role list. You can find this under File and Storage Services > File and ISCSI Services. When you select the DFS Namespaces server role, it may also add any required supporting server roles or features that you don't already have installed.

After you have checked the DFS Namespaces role, you may select Next on all subsequent screens, and select Install as soon as the wizard enables the button. When the installation is complete, you may configure your namespace.

Deploying Microsoft Dfs With Netapp Storage Systems