Distributed File System (DFS) is a set of client and server services that allow an organization using Microsoft Windows servers to organize many distributed SMB file shares into a distributed file system. DFS has two components to its service: Location transparency (via the namespace component) and Redundancy (via the file replication component). Together, these components enable data availability in the case of failure or heavy load by allowing shares in multiple different locations to be logically grouped under one folder, the "DFS root". Microsoft's DFS is referred to interchangeably as 'DFS' and 'Dfs' by Microsoft and is unrelated to the DCE Distributed File System, which held the 'DFS' trademark but was discontinued in 2005. It is also called "MS-DFS" or "MSDFS" in some contexts, e.g. in the Samba user space project. Overview There is no requirement to use the two components of DFS together; it is perfectly possible to use the logical namespace component without using DFS file replication, and it is perfectly possible to use file replication between servers without combining them into one namespace. A DFS root can only exist on a server version of Windows (from Windows NT 4.0 and up) and OpenSolaris (in kernel space) or a computer running Samba (in user space.) The Enterprise and Datacenter Editions of Windows Server can host multiple DFS roots on the same server. OpenSolaris intends on supporting multiple DFS roots in "a future project based on Active Directory (AD) domain-based DFS namespaces". There are two ways of implementing DFS on a server: Standalone DFS namespace - allows for a DFS root that exists only on the local computer, and thus does not use Active Directory. A Standalone DFS can only be accessed on the computer on which it is created. It does not offer any fault tolerance and cannot be linked to any other DFS. This is the only option available on Windows NT 4.0 Server systems. Standalone DFS roots are rarely encountered because of their limited utility. Domain-based DFS namespace - stores the DFS configuration in Active Directory, making the DFS namespace root accessible at \\<domainname>\<dfsroot> or \\<FQDN>\<dfsroot> The namespace roots can reside on a domain controller or a domain member server. If domain controllers are not used as the namespace root servers, multiple member servers should be used to provide full fault tolerance. DFS namespaces Traditional file shares, associated with a single server, have SMB paths of