HP StorageWorks Clustered File System 3.6.1 File Serving Option for Windows administration guide (AG515 - 96008, August 2008)

Introduction

The HP Clustered File System File Serving Option for Windows (FS

Option for Windows) and HP Clustered File System provide scalability

and high availability for the Common Internet FileSystem (CIFS). CIFS is

a variation of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. It runs over

TCP/IP and is commonly used on Windows systems to share files

remotely.

FS Option for Windows file shares can be deployed in two ways: with

Virtual CIFS Servers that provide failover support, or with Cluster File

Shares that enable connection load balancing. In both methods, the data

to be shared is stored on the HP Clustered File System PSFS filesystem

(not an NTFS filesystem). Note that the PSFS filesystem was built with the

Microsoft IFS (installable file system) toolkit, so it appears to be an NTFS

filesystem.

FS Option for Windows supports up to 5000 active, monitored

subdirectory shares per node at any time.

Virtual CIFS Servers

A Virtual CIFS Server “virtualizes” the network name and IP address

associated with a particular CIFS service/share. When a Virtual CIFS

Server is created, it is assigned a unique name/IP-address pair. Clients

then access the Virtual CIFS Server via this name/IP address pair instead

of using the network name and IP address of an actual server.

A Virtual CIFS Server is assigned to a primary node and one or more

backup nodes. One or more CIFS file shares are then associated with the