So you have just been asked to enable ABE on the DFS. But you cant enable it because your namespace is in 2000 mode. So how do we upgrade it? The boring answer is that you don’t, Microsoft doesn’t have an upgrade. But it is quite simple anyway.

Backup your current DFS-Namespace

First lets make sure that we have a copy of your current namespace. This is so we don’t have to rebuild it by hand. This a simple XML file that is the entire configuration both root servers and all links. Just replace the \<domain.fqdn><Namespace> with your DFS namespace information, the file doesn’t really matter. When it is complete just look into the file and see what you got.

dfsutil root export \\<domain.fqdn>\<Namespace> %temp%\namespace_backup.xml

Remove the old namespace

This part is quite simple usually, just start with one DFS namespace server and remove them one after another. If you get stuck because the server is no longer alive, don’t worry. Just remove it by force. Once all you delete the last namespace server, the namespace is no more.

Setting up the new environment

Well this is a good time to think about doing it right. For instance were you using FQDN for your namespace servers? I say enable FQDN and lets go.

Now just create a new namespace with the same name as before. Since we are talking about a Namespace which is a bunch of NTFS junctions points I see no point moving the DFS share from the default of %Systemroot%\DFSRoots\NamespaceName. Just remember that everyone should have only Read Only access.

Then add the other namespace servers one after another.

Restore the namespace

So where are my hundreds of links, I cant remember them all. Well importing is as easy as the export we did earlier.. You didn’t skip that step right?

dfsutil root import merge %temp%\namespace_backup.xml \\<domain.fqdn>\<Namespace>

Now for the boring part. You should really test it to make sure it works. Remember that domain based DFS is carried in the AD with all replication delays that could incur..

This entry has been on my waiting list for a long time, but since it was a good match for my solution for a question on social I completed it.