2. Provisioning SMB shares
After you create volumes using Storage Spaces, you can create
shared storage for various purposes by provisioning new file shares.
Storage Spaces supports the provisioning of two types of
shares:
-
SMB shares Server Message
Block (SMB) is a network file-sharing protocol that allows SMB
clients to read and write to files and to request services from
SMB servers on the network. Windows Server 2012 supports the new
SMB 3.0 protocol, which includes numerous enhancements in
performance, security, and scalability. Using SMB 3.0 enables you
to implement new file-server scenarios, such as storing Hyper-V
virtual machines and Microsoft SQL Server databases on SMB file
shares. SMB 3.0 also helps reduce latency over branch-office wide
area network (WAN) connections and can help protect data from
eavesdropping attacks. For more information on SMB 3.0 in Windows
Server 2012, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831795.
-
NFS shares Network File
System (NFS) enables file sharing in heterogeneous environments
that include both Windows and non-Windows computers. Windows
Server 2012 includes two NFS components:
-
Server for NFS This
component enables Windows Server 2012 to act as a file server
for non-Windows client computers.
-
Client for NFS This
component enables Windows Server 2012 to access files that are
stored on a non-Windows NFS server.
Server for NFS has also been enhanced in Windows Server 2012
to support continuous availability. This makes possible new
scenarios, such as running VMware ESX virtual machines from
file-based storage over the NFS protocol instead of using more
expensive SAN storage. This improvement enables Windows Server
2012 to provide continuous availability for VMware virtual
machines, making it easier for organizations to integrate their
VMware infrastructure with the Windows platform. Using Server for
NFS as a data store for VMware virtual machines requires using
VMware ESX 4.1. You also need a management server with VMware
vSphere Client version 4.1 installed. You can use PowerShell to
provision and configure shared files on your Server for NFS data
store. For more information, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831653.
Because NFS is useful only for certain types of scenarios, the
remainder of this section focuses on provisioning SMB shares.
2.1 Configuration options for SMB shares
When you create a new SMB share, you can select from the
following configuration options:
-
Enable Access-Based
Enumeration Enabling this option causes users who
access a share to see only files and folders they have
permission to access. When access-based enumeration is disabled
for a share, users can see all of the files and folders in the
share even if they don’t have permission to read or modify the
files and folders. Implementing access-based enumeration helps
reduce user confusion that might be caused when users are unable
to access some of the files and folders in a share.
-
Allow Caching Of Share
Enabling this option makes the contents of the share available
to offline users. This ensures that users can have access to the
files in the share even when they are working offline without
access to the network.
-
Enable BranchCache By
enabling this option, you allow computers in a branch office to
use BranchCache to cache any files downloaded from the shared
folder. The computers can then securely serve the files to other
computers in the branch office. This option can be enabled only
if the Allow Caching Of Share option is also enabled.
-
Encrypt Data Access
Enabling this option causes remote file access to the share to
be encrypted to protect against eavesdropping attacks.
-
Folder Usage You can use
this option to specify the purpose of the share and the kinds of
files stored in it. Folder Usage is used by data-management
policies, such as when specifying the classification rules for
the new File Classification Infrastructure feature of Windows
Server 2012.
-
Quota You can use this
option to limit the space allowed for a volume or folder. You
can also define quota templates that can be automatically
applied to new volumes or folders.
Note
File Server Resource Manager
Configuring the Folder Usage and Quota options requires that
the File Server Resource Manager feature be installed on a Windows
Server 2012 file server in your environment.
New SMB shares can be provisioned in your environment using
either Server Manager or Windows PowerShell. As Figure 8 shows, you
have three options to choose from when creating SMB shares using the
New Share Wizard:
-
Quick Choose this option if
you need to create a general-purpose SMB share for file sharing.
This option enables caching of the share by default and allows
you to enable access-based enumeration and to encrypt data
access if desired. You can also enable BranchCache on the share
if the BranchCache feature is installed on the server.
-
Advanced Choose this option
if you will need to configure quotas on your share or implement
file classification. This option also enables caching of the
share by default and allows you to enable access-based
enumeration and to encrypt data access if desired. You can also
enable BranchCache on the share if the BranchCache feature is
installed on the server.
-
Applications Choose this
option if the share will be used by Hyper-V hosts for shared
storage, by a database application, and for other server
applications. This option allows you to encrypt data access if
desired, but you cannot enable caching or enable access-based
enumeration on the share.
