Distributed File System namespace support

macOS supports traversing Distributed File System (DFS) namespaces. A Mac bound to Active Directory can query Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) servers and domain controllers in the Active Directory domain to automatically resolve the appropriate Server Message Block (SMB) server for a particular namespace.

The Connect to Server feature in the Finder is used to specify the fully qualified domain name of the DFS namespace and it includes the DFS root to mount the network file system. From the Finder, click Go in the menu bar, choose Connect to Server, then enter:

smb://resources.example.com/DFSroot

macOS uses any available Kerberos tickets and mounts the underlying SMB server and path. In some Active Directory configurations, it may be necessary to populate the Search Domains field in the DNS configuration for the network interface with the fully qualified Active Directory domain name.

For more information, see the Apple Support article Guidelines for connecting to a DFS namespace via SMB.