I have two fileservers (Windows Server 2012 R2) that have joined my domain, namely filesrv01 & filesrv02. These fileservers should both contain exact copies of the user data, and if one fails; the other one should take its place.
I have made a GPO that maps the folders from the first server and activated DFS replication between the two fileservers. The data is now successfully replicated between the sites, but my GPO is only statically mapping to the first fileserver. So if the primary fileserver goes offline, the drive maps get lost. I would like to have the drive maps updated to the secondary fileserver, should the primary fileserver go offline, or alternatively have one path to both destinations.
What would be a practical way of getting this to work the way I intend to?
Best Answer
You're halfway there if you already have DFS replication set up! What you need to do is configure a DFS namespace. The namespace will give you a single share name that your GPOs can map to, and the DFS service will direct the client to either one of the file servers. (If you have multiple Active Directory sites, one of the functions that it typically does is try to send the user to the closest file server in the DFS namespace.)
There are many guides out there on how to do this, and I think you'll find it fairly straightforward. Here are a few to get you started:
Once your DFS namespace is created, you will want to use the GPO to point drive mappings at it. Feel free to follow up here if you still have any questions about implementing this.