Hello, we are running 2003 server R2 with two dfs shares. It seems that when user A user opens a file on the dfs share (an excel file) then user B opens the same file, user B never recieves a notice that he file is open. When we point these two users to the actual shares and not use dfs at all, user B does get the message that the file is open by user A. Is this normal?
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Are you using DFS replication between the two shares? Are these two differnt shares that hold the same data? If so are your users setup to point to a random server or do you have a preferred primary?
If you have DFS set to point to 2 differnet locations, and user A is being pointed to location A, while user B is pointed to location B, then they are working on 2 different files as far as the file system is concerned, so you wont get the open files message. Hope I understood the question properly :)
DFS is not a document management or synchronization platform. With DFS, LAST WRITE WINS!
This means multiple people can open and save a document at the same time, and the older save is simply moved to the hidden Conflict and Deleted folder. Bye-bye!
You can limit this by selecting a target priority:
Namespace > Namespace Server > Right Click > Properties > Advanced > [X] Override referral ordering
but this doesn't remove the problem entirely.
DFS is only useful for files that are read-only to users, or as a real-time off-site backup. Just hope your Priority Target doesn't drop out and come back repeatedly, or you'll have a REAL sync nightmare.
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Windows 2003 Server DFS issue with open files