I have brought on-line a DFS solution for storing our graphics files which are accessed by five of our Mac platforms. This was thinking that Apple had introduced DFS support in OS 10.7 and above. I've discovered that Apple have introduced DFS support but is is not very stable.
DFS Structure
We have two separate DFS File Servers that contain the files and a separate DFS Namespace Server that is publishing the links to the files, (see DFS Screen shot for DFS Structure).
The Path from the Mac for the share is: smb://192.1.1.200/RAID
The folder structure underneath RAID is : assets_on_HD/_Job_Assets/ - after this there are numerous folders one for each customer, (see screen shot A)
With each customer folder we have jobs and then a further folder structure for the files - see screen shot B
The customer folders are spread across the two DFS File Servers A-E on one Server and E-Z on the other.
We have an MIS system that stores paths to graphics files per job. By selecting tasks within the MIS system these paths are passed from the MIS system to workflows as XML files to enable workflows to find files and write files from/to the correct location on the file server. The Workflow Processor software are on Mac platforms. The Mac needs to have a volume mounted on the Desktop called 'RAID'
Main problem
I have replicated this folder structure on the DFS Namespace Server (see DFS screen shot). Connecting the Macs to the RAID volume via smb or cifs it all works works OK for most of the day. BUT the Mac do regularly loose connection to the RAID volume. The volume is still mounted on the Mac desktop but paths to files cannot be found. Sometimes a dismount of the RAID volume and remount solves the problem, more worryingly the Mac grey screens when this is attempted and a hard reboot is required.
I've installed a trial version of Dave but this only allows me to mount the Dfs link share (Customer folder). Is there any stable solution that will enable me to mount the root DFS share 'RAID' on the Mac desktop?
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DFS Screen shot.jpg [ 110.1 KiB | Viewed 868 times ] |
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Screen Shot B.png [ 79.19 KiB | Viewed 868 times ] |
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Screen Shot A.png [ 100.35 KiB | Viewed 868 times ] |