Windows search not showing file content results from mapped DFS drive

dfsnetwork-sharesearchwindows

I already checked the thread Windows 7 search not showing results from mapped Server 2008 R2 BUT my case is different:
We have file servers (2012 R2) and Windows 7 workstations.
The mapped network drive is from a DFS namespace.
When I search from the mapped drive on the workstation I get only the file name matches and an option to search in file contents. When clicking on that it takes ages and anyhow doesn't return all full text matches. On the server I don't have an option "file content".
When I search on the server directly the logical drive or mount the server share (\servername\share) on the workstation, I then get all matches including the full text.
Here two screenshots from the workstation. The first is the DFS mount, the second the direct server mount. Please note the difference in the file types.
DFS namespace share
Server share

Best Answer

OK, to answer my own question: there is no problem with server or computer configurations. The issue is by design, as windows search doesn't support UNC paths with DFS roots. As per this site (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744693(WS.10).aspx) Windows Search works well on a single share departmental server with the following characteristics: [truncated] Users directly access the server. That is, the server is not made available through Distributed File System (DFS).

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Windows – apache with windows mapped drive

Apache starts as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM so you have to map the drive for the service as described in https://stackoverflow.com/a/4763324

Windows Server 2008 mapped drives not showing on workstations

Group Policy Preferences work great on Vista and newer OS. If your environment is all Vista or newer, use Preferences. It's straight forward, easy, and works. Preferences will not work on XP unless you have the XP CSE installed. Even with the CSE many people have reported "issues" with them working reliably. GPP is not available for older OSes than XP SP2.

Edit:
Here's a copy of the MapDrives.vbs script we use. Works flawlessly on WinXP/Vista/7/2003/2008/R2.

' Author: Chris Stone
' Date: 29 MAY 2009  Version: 1.3
' Purpose: Map network drives

On Error Resume Next
Set objNet = CreateObject("WScript.Network")

Public Sub CheckAndMapNetDrive(Letter, Path, Persist)
    'Check if drive letter is already used
    Set colNetDrives = objNet.EnumNetworkDrives
    For i = 0 To colNetDrives.Count - 1 Step 2
        If colNetDrives.Item(i) = Letter Then
            'Drive Letter Exists, Test if it's the same Path
            If colNetDrives.Item(i+1) = Path Then
                'It's the same, no new mapping necessary.
                Exit Sub
            Else
                'It's different, remove old.
                objNet.RemoveNetworkDrive colNetDrives.Item(i)
            End If
        End If
    Next
    'Drive does not exist now, never did or removed.
    objNet.MapNetworkDrive Letter, Path, Persist
End Sub 

CheckAndMapNetDrive "X:", "\\server\share1", True
CheckAndMapNetDrive "Y:", "\\server\share2", True

Best Answer

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Windows Server 2008 mapped drives not showing on workstations

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