This tool enables administrators to query and troubleshoot the
Microsoft from the command prompt. It can be used to perform
maintenance of a DFS root and to clean up metadata left behind by
orphaning or abandoning domain-based DFS roots.
Distributed File System, a feature of Windows 2000, makes
it easier to access and manage files that are physically
distributed across a network. With DFS, you can make files
distributed across multiple servers appear to users as if they
reside in one place on the network. Users and applications no
longer need to know and specify the actual physical location of
files in order to access them: DFS makes the physical storage of
data transparent by mapping it to a logical representation.
DFS does for servers and shares what file systems do for hard
disks. File systems provide uniform named access to collections of
sectors on disks; DFS provides a uniform naming convention and
mapping for collections of servers, shares, and files. Thus, DFS
makes it possible to organize file servers and their shares into a
logical hierarchy, making it considerably easier to manage and use
extensive information resources. In addition, DFS is not limited to
a single file protocol—it can support the mapping of servers,
shares, and files, regardless of the file client being used,
provided that the client supports the native server and share.
In the past, with the , a user or application was required to specify the
physical server and share in order to access file information (that
is, the user or application had to specify
\\Server\Share\Path\FileName).
