Configuring or monitoring DFS in Windows 2008 environments is a task that normally gets invoked from the Server Manager console and aided by a corresponding wizard as you can see in this post. However, you can use the DFSUtil command to manage DFS from a command prompt or script. In addition, to troubleshoot DFS from the command line, you can use the DFSDiag command. Make sure that the DFS role is installed from Server Manager before trying out these examples that belong to our test domain environment called env1.testlab: To display all domain-based namespaces in a domain, type: Dfsutil domain <domain_name> ex: dfsutil domain env1.testlab To display the roots on a specific server called Win2k8FileShare, type: Dfsutil server <server_name> ex: dfsutil server Win2k8FileShare To display the domain cache, type: Dfsutil cache domain ex: dfsutil cache domain Or to flush the domain cache, type: Dfsutil cache domain flush ex: dfsutil cache domain flush To check the DFS domain controller configuration, type: Dfsdiag /testdcs To check the configuration of a DFS namespace called Test1Namespace, type: Dfsdiag /testdfsconfig /dfsroot:\\env1.testlab\test1namespace In this configuration check, the command verifies that the DFS namespace service is running and that its Startup type is set to Automatic. Also, it checks that the DFS registry configuration is consistent among namespace servers and validates the dependencies on clustered namespace servers.
Bank of America customers can now perform banking activities such as, finding ATMs, transferring funds, managing accounts, etc. from their Windows 7 phones if they own one! The application that runs on Windows 7 Phones was launched on Tuesday. The news was more than welcomed by Microsoft's phone users after months of waiting and which left them behind iPhone, Blackberry and Android users. Other features such as, Check Deposit are planned for next year. Bank of America is one of the World's largest financial institutions and it operates all over the US and in 30 foreign countries. To read the full story go here.
The simplest way to share folders is through Windows Explorer and in almost every environment this is a common practice, however, Server core installations are getting more popular in virtualized environments. In case, you need to upload some files to a server core installation, the net share command may save your day! To view any existing shares on your machine you can just type net share, but this command is far more powerful: net share sharename=drive:path [/grant: user, [read | change | full]] [/cache: manual | documents | programs | none] Where sharename is the name that the users will see when connecting to the folder and the grant parameter allows you to specify a user or a group together with the allowed access permissions. The cache option allows you to define Offline Files for document or applications. For complete usage information, type: net share /? Now, let's consider some examples. For example, to share the Data folder residing in the d: drive using the share name Sales, from an elevated command prompt type: net share Sales=d:\data And to share the same folder while setting read-only access permissions and disallowing Offline Files, type the following command: net share Sales=d:\data /grant:everyone,read /cache:none And to remove the above share, simply type: net share Sales /delete On the other hand, if you need to connect to the above share from a client workstation or from a server core installation to shared folder you need to use the net use command and the UNC (Universal Naming Convention) format for the share location. The UNC format syntax is \\<server name>\<share name>. When connecting to shares, you can specify a local drive as if the network share appears to be a local volume or drive. Therefore, shared network folders can be mapped to local drives and you can accomplish this by typing: net use z: \\MyServer\Sales Where z: is the local drive that corresponds to a shared folder (Sales) on MyServer. Therefore, Z: bec
Spiceworks will expand its business with a $25 Million investment from new investors Adams Street Partners and Tenaya Capital. Thanks to the new and some existing investors, Spiceworks will include integrated commerce within its social network business model for IT professionals and technology vendors. IT Professionals will now benefit from added functionality from the rapidly growing Facebook-like platform. Read the full news item here.
Microsoft released IIS Smooth Streaming Client that allows developers to build richer applications for the Silverlight and the Windows Phone 7 platforms. "IIS Smooth Streaming Client allows you to build rich Smooth Streaming experiences for both on-demand and live IIS Smooth Streaming. This release of the IIS Smooth Streaming Client allows you to build Silverlight® players for on-demand and live Smooth Streaming, with full DVR, live ad insertion, multiple camera angles, trickplay, and other rich functionalities. This kit is intended to aid your development of rich Smooth Streaming players and experiences.The IIS Smooth Streaming Client APIs provide an interface for developers and designers to easily create rich Smooth Streaming experiences using the Silverlight platform. These APIs provide support for simple operations such as Play, Pause, and Stop, and also for more complex operations such as scheduling advertisements, selecting and tracking bit rates for Smooth Streaming playback, and many more." For more information about the IIS Smooth Streaming Client and to download the msi package go here.