[Samba] Redundant DFS via DNS entries

[William Marshall]

William Burns wrote on 06/24/2005 07:04:14 AM:

> ...
> A single DFS server would be a single point of failure. I need redundant 

> DFS.
> ...
> How can I make the redundant DFS system work?
> Or... What other methods could be used to give me SAMBA based redundant 
> DFS services?

I'm really slow to respond her, but I didn't see any other responses. 

We use IBM e-network dispatcher (which probably has been renamed into a 
websphere product) which is a network load-balancer designed to put in 
front of a web server to balance requests.

Similar solutions can be built using the instructions at 
http://www.ultramonkey.org/ to build either an high-availabilty setup 
(easier) or a load balancing setup (prob not needed for dfs).

Other resources include http://www.linux-ha.org/

A couple articles in this issues of Linux Magazine 
http://www.linux-mag.com/2003-11/availability_01.html provide good 
introductions. The software has changed some since then, so you need to 
map their configs to the current ones.

jht - maybe this is something that could go in the how-to guide. I think 
Samba's DFS implementation is great, but w/out HA, you don't want to build 
a lot on of critical dependencies on it.

Bill Marshall 
IBM Global Services Unix & Intel Servers
Rochester PC Server Team