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Our RAID array which housed the File server VMDK is no more. This was a Windows Server 2003 install which was the file server and contained the DFS Namespaces.

The RAID array with all the files is intact and the data is working fine. We have created a new VM and installed Server 2008 SP2 which we were able to mount the data volumes as RAW LUN hard drives in VMWare.

I need to know if there is any possibility of restoring the DFS Namespaces and structures.

Sadly... There appears to be no system state or even a backup of the Server 2003 VMDK. :(

There is however what appears to be a backup of the namespaces in the way of a .bat file. So it looks like the previous sysadmin had a script running to backup the DFS to the .bat file. (I will restore this tomorrow to see if that is right.)

My question to you is: Is it possible to restore DFS from this .bat backup file? Is it possible to restore Server 2003 DFS namespaces to a Server 2008 SP2 install? Is there any other place where the DFS info may extracted from? (The DC is on another server, is this info stored in Active Directory and can I pull it out and manually start building a new DFS namespace?)

Thanks for the input.

Rex
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Ross
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  • Question: if the raid array holding the file server broke, why do you say the files are intact? Or are you saying the array holding the OS volume of the file server broke and you had another array holding the file share data? Just trying to clarify your question. – Rex Jul 05 '13 at 14:57
  • The RAID array holding the VM had died and there is a second array holding the Data. – Ross Jul 06 '13 at 08:38

1 Answers1

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I'm going to assume that the batch file was running an export of the DFS namespace:

dfsutil/root:<namespace> /export:<exportfilename>)

That being the case, Microsoft has a KB article on restoring the namespace from such a backup (option 2 on KB article KB969382).

To recover a namespace via an export file, perform the following:

a. If the root doesn't already exist, create it using DFS Management. Add all appropriate root targets. Dfsutil.exe will fail to import the configuration if the root itself doesn't already exist and will not add root targets as defined in the file. However, you may review the contents of the export file to identify which root targets should be manually added.

b. Import the configuration file to create all of the hosted links via the commands:
Windows Server 2003:
dfsutil /root:\contoso.com\DATA /import: DATA-dfs-Root.txt

Windows Server 2008:
dfsutil root import set DATA-dfs-Root.txt \contoso.com\DATA

(Where the domain is contoso.com, "DATA" is the root's name, and "DATA-dfs-Root.txt" is the export file)

Attempting the import before the root has been created will result in the error "Element not found."

Attempting to add a root target that already has registry configuration data associated with the root results in the errors "The device is not ready for use" or "Cannot create a file when that file already exists." To remove the registry data from the affected server, utilize the "clean" option within DFSUtil:

Windows Server 2003:
dfsutil /clean /server:servername /share:sharename

Windows Server 2008:
dfsutil diag clean servername sharename

c. Verify the import was successful. You may have to reopen any DFS management tools to observe the imported links.

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Rex
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  • Soo, I restored the .bat file I found and it was basically 32000 something lines of commands. E.g. dfscmd /map "\\NameSpace\Public\Folder Name\Folder Name" "\\Server Name\Network Share Name" "" Considering it was not what I expected, and there were a lot more shares than I expected. With nothing more to loose, I created a new NameSpace and ran the Batch Script. This recreated all the folder paths a lot of which are old so I will see on Monday who logs a ticket and manually fix it. – Ross Jul 06 '13 at 08:44
  • Thanks again for the answer Rex, I have not had a chance to try the steps you posted, because the file I thought was going to be a DFS backup, turned out to not be. In any case, I hope the answer helps someone else. – Ross Jul 06 '13 at 08:47