DFS - Distributed File SystemAt CERN, the Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS) has been deployed. This gives the possibility to offer a reliable, redundant and replicated file system that is logically accessible and that is spanning over a large number of independent servers.
The address of the CERN DFS is \\cern.ch\dfs
Among the important concepts of DFS are the "Root Replicas" which represent the servers where the DFS root has been replicated. For example cerndfs01 and cernhome01 have the DFS root replica meaning that the addresses \\cerndfs01\dfs and \\cernhome01\dfs gives you the entire DFS access.
Another concept is the "DFS Link" which represents the mount point of a server share into the DFS tree. For example the "Applications" folder in dfs is a link to the \\cernsoft01\Applications share.
The last important concept which makes DFS fault tolerant and redundant is the "Volume Replica" which allows one particular data store to be automatically replicated across multiple servers offering data redundancy and load balancing. For example it is planned to load balance the "Applications" folder across multiple cernsoft0x servers.
Remote access to DFSRemote access to DFS can be done using WebDAV:
WebDAV/DFS CNL article