DFS Namespace Referrals Test

A DFS Namespace is a virtual view of shared folders on different servers as provided by DFS. A DFS namespace consists of a root and many links and targets. The namespace starts with a root that maps to one or more root targets. Below the root are links that map to their own targets.

A Referral is a list of targets, transparent to the user, which a DFS client receives from DFS when the user is accessing a root or a link in the DFS namespace.

User experience with DFS is often measured by how quickly DFS processes referral requests. Prolonged delays in processing combined with frequent request failures can leave users frustrated. To prevent this, administrators must track the referral requests to each namespace managed by DFS, keep an eye out for request failures, monitor how DFS handles these requests, and promptly capture abnormalities. This is exactly what the DFS Namespace Referrals test does. For each namespace, this test reports the count of referral requests to the namespace, the percentage of requests that failed, and how swiftly the requests were processed. Besides proactively alerting administrators to processing bottlenecks, the test also leads them to the exact namespace where the problem lies.

Target of the test : A server that hosts the DFS namespace  (this can even be a server that contains the Dfs root or a replica of it)

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each DFS namespace to which the namespace server being monitored belongs.

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameters	Description
Test period	This indicates how often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Port	The port at which the specified host listens to.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Avg response time	Indicates the average time taken by the DFS namespace service to respond to referral requests to this namespace during the last measurement period.	Secs	Ideally, the value of this measure should be low. A consistent increase in the value of this measure is indicative of poor responsiveness of the DFS namespace service. Compare the value of this measure across namespaces to know which namespace is responding slowly to referral requests.
Requests processed	Indicates the number of referral requests processed by the DFS namespace service for this namespace during the last measurement period.	Number
Requests failed	Indicates the number of requests for this namespace that failed.	Number	Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0.
Percentage of failed requests	Indicatesthe percentage of referral requests to this namespace that failed.	Percent	The value 0 is desired for this measure. A high value is a cause for concern. Compare the value of this measure across namespaces to know requests to which namespace are failing often.
Request processing rate	Indicates the rate at which the referral requests to this namespace are processed by the DFS namespace service.	Requests/Sec	A high value is desired for this measure. A steady dip in this value is indicative of a processing bottleneck. Compare the value of this measure across namespaces to know the requests that are being serviced very slowly.