From Windows 2008 onward, that sorely missing functionality is available in the revamped dfsutil commandline tool. And as an added bonus, changing the TTL for a link is also possible.
Even more, dfsutil in 2008R2 (and therefore Windows 7 clients with RSAT installed) lets you set the Access Based Enumeration property.

Below are the property commands:

   1: E:\>dfsutil property

   2:  

   3: DESCRIPTION:

   4: Displays or modifies the properties of a folder target (link target) or

   5: namespace server (root target).

   6:  

   7: ------ PROPERTY Commands Supported ------

   8:  

   9: Sitecosting           Displays or modifies site costing for a namespace.

  10: RootScalability       Displays or modifies the namsespace polling mode.

  11: ABE                   Enable/Disable/View ABE property of a namespace.

  12: Insite                Displays or modifies the in-site property.

  13: TargetfailBack        Displays or modifies client fail back.

  14: SD                    Set/Get Security Information on the folder.

  15: State                 Displays or modifies a folder target or namespace server.

  16: TTL                   Displays or changes client referral caching.

  17: PriorityRank          Displays or changes the ordering method (priority rank).

  18: PriorityClass         Displays or changes the target priority.

  19: Comment               Sets or displays the comment for a namespace or link.

So, what do we do with this? Let’s say you’re migrating your DFS-Namespace enabled* Datashares to a newer fileserver with more storage capacity.

*no DFS-R , in case you’re wondering, because the original server might be a Windows 2003 non-R2 install.

A default link timeout is 7200 seconds or 2×60x 60 seconds = 2 hours, meaning your DFS client will check for changes in state after that time. During your migration window, you’ll want to ensure that any changes are picked up within a shorter time.

   1: E:\>dfsutil property ttl \\alt-92.net\data\share1

   2: The timeout for \\alt-92.net\data\share1 is 7200

First, we’ll change the timeout setting to a 5 minute setting:

   1: E:\>dfsutil property ttl set \\alt-92.net\data\share1 300

   2:  

   3: Done processing this command.

   4:  

   5: E:\>dfsutil property ttl \\alt-92.net\data\share1

   6: The timeout for \\alt-92.net\data\share1 is 300

Then, using both dfscmd and dfsutil, we’ll add our new fileshare to the link AND set it offline:

   1: dfscmd /add \\alt-92.net\data\share1 \\newserver\data\share1

   2: dfsutil property state offline \\alt-92.net\data\share1 \\newserver\data\share1

After syncing the content with robocopy (be sure to check the /MT switch for multithreading on Windows 2008R2 or Windows 7) we now flip the link state on both shares and restore the timeout value to its former setting:

   1: dfsutil property state offline \\alt-92.net\data\share1 \\oldserver\data\share1

   2: dfsutil property state online \\alt-92.net\data\share1 \\newserver\data\share1

   3: dfsutil property ttl set \\alt-92.net\data\share1 7200

After that, we’ll decommission the old fileserver, by taking the shares offline and removing the old links from the DFS Namespace with dfscmd:

   1: dfscmd /remove \\alt-92.net\data\share1 \\oldserver\data\share1

Et voila: we’ve migrated our DFS enabled fileshares to a new server with minimal downtime.

Fully scripted, its now feasible to migrate a DFS Namespace root with hundreds of links in just a few hours (including the final replication with robocopy – the bulk copy we’ve started a couple of days in advance) .

Based on MSDN code sample from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb524791(VS.85).aspx

#define UNICODE
#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <lm.h>
#include <lmdfs.h>
 
void wmain(int argc, wchar_t *argv[ ])
{
   PDFS_INFO_4 pData;
   PDFS_STORAGE_INFO ps;
   DWORD er=0, tr=0, res, j;
 
   //
   // Check command line arguments.
   //
   if (argc<2)
      wprintf(L"Syntax: %s DfsEntryPath\n", argv[0]);
   else
   {
      //
      // Call the NetDfsGetInfo function, specifying level 4.
      //
      res = NetDfsGetInfo(argv[1], NULL, NULL,  4, (LPBYTE *) &pData);
      //
      // If the call succeeds, print the data.
      //
      if(res==0)
      {
 printf("Report for: %-30S\nStorages: %u\nComment: %S\n",pData->EntryPath, pData->NumberOfStorages, pData->Comment, pData->Timeout);
 printf("Timeout: %u\n",pData->Timeout);
 ps = pData->Storage;
         //
         // Loop through each target.
         //
         for(j=1;j<=pData->NumberOfStorages;j++)
         {
            //
            // Print the status (Offline/Online) and the name 
            // of each target referenced by the DFS link.
            //
 printf("Target %S  ", (ps->State == DFS_STORAGE_STATE_OFFLINE) ? TEXT("Offline:"): TEXT("Online :"));
            printf("\\\\%S\\%S\n",ps->ServerName,ps->ShareName);
            ps++;
         }
         //
         // Free the allocated memory.
         //
         NetApiBufferFree(pData);
      }
      else
         printf("Error: %u\n", res);
   }
   return;
}

It’s quick, it’s probably dirty, but it works just fine (and no admin privileges needed as it does the same as your average DFS client code).

Sample output:

D:\>dfsquery \\alt-92.net\files\0054
Report for: \\ALT-92\files\0054
Storages: 2
Comment:Department 54 data store
Timeout: 300
Target Online : \\ENDEAVOUR\data\0054
Target Offline: \\Equinoxe\data\0054

It shows timeout value, comments (description field in DFS console) the number of link targets and their individual link state.

Vista does not have this feature, but there is a workaround available. Installing the VHDMount utility from Virtual Server 2005R2 SP1 lets you use the VHD storage driver and the vhdmount utility.

1. Download the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 setup from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/downloads.aspx .
2. Run setup and choose Custom Setup type:

   
   

3. Verify the default selection for VHD Mount is marked:

   

   Click Next to install and finish the setup.

   

4. You can use the command line vhdmount utility to attach a .VHD file, or alternatively, use these registry entries to create a context menu for the four actions.

   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD]
   @="Virtual Machine Hard Drive Image"
    
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\DefaultIcon]
   @="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Virtual PC\\Virtual PC.exe,-327"
    
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell]
   @="Mount"
    
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Commit]
    
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Commit\command]
   @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Virtual Server\\Vhdmount\\vhdmount.exe\" /c \"%1\""
    
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Discard]
    
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Discard\command]
   @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Virtual Server\\Vhdmount\\vhdmount.exe\" /d \"%1\""
    
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Dismount]
    
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Dismount\command]
   @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Virtual Server\\Vhdmount\\vhdmount.exe\" /u /d \"%1\""
    
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Mount]
    
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Mount\command]
   @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Virtual Server\\Vhdmount\\vhdmount.exe\" /p \"%1\""

   The result is a context menu on right-clicking a .VHD file like this.

   

   Mounting your disk file is now as easy as a right-click away, and the VHD will show up as a new disk in Explorer.

The script:

On Error Resume Next
Const HARD_DISK = 3
Const adOpenStatic = 3
Const adLockOptimistic = 3
 
strNamespace = "root\cimv2"
strDomain = "domain"
 
strDate = FormatDateTime(Now(), 2)
strTime = FormatDateTime(Now(), 4)
Set objNetwork = CreateObject("Wscript.Network")
' =====================================================================
arrComputers = Array("Server1","Server2","Server3")
 
For Each strComputer In arrComputers
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" & strComputer & "root\CIMV2")
Set colDisks = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("SELECT * FROM Win32_LogicalDisk Where DriveType = " & HARD_DISK & "",,48)
 
Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set objRecordSet = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
 
objConnection.Open _
"Provider = Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; " & _
"Data Source = c:\scripts\diskspace_database.mdb"
 
objRecordSet.Open "SELECT * FROM tbldiskspace" , _
objConnection, adOpenStatic, adLockOptimistic
For Each objDisk in colDisks
objRecordSet.AddNew
 
objRecordSet("server") = strComputer
objRecordSet("domain") = strDomain
objRecordSet("disk") = objDisk.VolumeName
objRecordSet("drive") = objDisk.DeviceID
objRecordSet("totalspace") = round(objDisk.Size /1024/1024,2)
objRecordSet("freespace") = round(objDisk.FreeSpace /1024/1024,2)
objRecordSet("percentage") = (objDisk.Freespace /objDisk.Size)*100
objRecordSet("date") = strDate
objRecordSet("time") = strTime
 
objRecordSet.Update
 
Next
Next
 
objRecordSet.Close
objConnection.Close
' =====================================================================

Access DB has a simple table layout, and a couple of queries and comboboxes.
Table:

Form:

Using the queries and by generating a PivotTable view, it’s easy to spot growth trends on disks.
Graph showing available free space:

http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/archive/2006/07/25/443320.aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/905846 

Included are the perfmon counters you can use to detect if your performance issues early in the morning are attributable to those pesky pst files.

Here’s why.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320246/en-us