HOW TO: Migrate a Dfs Root Configuration to a Windows 2000 Cluster

Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Datacenter Server use server clustering and provide cluster failover capabilities for a standard Distributed File System (Dfs) root. When you are creating a cluster file share resource in Cluster Administrator or by using the command-line utility (Cluster.exe), an existing Dfs root configuration is not migrated. This article describes a procedure that an administrator can use to add this configuration information to the clustered Dfs root.

NOTE: If there is currently a Dfs root defined on any node in the cluster, the creation of the file share resource does not succeed and the following error message occurs: All existing Dfs roots must be removed before creating the cluster file share resource as a Dfs root or defining an existing cluster file share resource as a Dfs root. The Windows 2000 version of Dfs Manager does not have a feature to save and restore the child node configuration. This functionality is in Dfs version 4.1 that is available at the following Microsoft Web site:

Steps to Migrate

1. Go to the computer that contains the Dfs root to be migrated. You can also use this procedure on a remote computer if needed if the computer has network connectivity and you have administrative rights to the Dfs server.
2. Run Dfsadmin.exe from a command prompt.
3. On the Dfs menu, click Save As, and type a name such as Dfs.csv.
4. Start Microsoft Excel or any other spreadsheet program that can read .csv files, and then open the file you created in step 3.
5. If the virtual server name for the Dfs root will be different from the existing server name, modify the Name column.
6. Save the file with the modifications with a new name, such as Dfscluster.csv.
7. Create the cluster file share resource as a Dfs root with Cluster Administrator or Cluster.exe.
8. Test the cluster functionality to ensure that it fails over properly.
9. Run Dfsadmin.exe, and then connect to the new Dfs root.
10. On the Dfs menu, click Load, and then select the file you saved in step 6.
11. Quit Dfsadmin.exe.
12. Start the Windows 2000 Dfs Manager tool.
13. Verify that the child nodes are configured properly.