3.6.0 MxFS for CIFS Administration Guide (5697-7082, December 2007)

Configure MxFS for CIFS with

Matrix File Shares

Configuration Overview

Matrix File Shares are Windows CIFS shares associated with a MxFS for

CIFS filesystem health monitor. Clients connect to Matrix File Shares

using the network name or IP address of any physical server in the

cluster. Each node in the cluster provides access to the same PSFS

filesystems through its Matrix File Shares.

For high availability, Matrix File Shares can be deployed with a

connection-oriented load balancer such as the Microsoft Distributed File

System (DFS). Client connection requests to a single network name

(provided by DFS) are evenly distributed among the nodes in the cluster.

On failure of a node, DFS detects the loss of network connectivity and

routes new connection and re-connection requests to the remaining nodes

in the cluster.

The Matrix File Share monitor can detect a situation in which a node in

the cluster loses access to the PSFS filesystem (for example, because of a

SAN problem) but is otherwise healthy. The monitor then tears down the

associated CIFS share to prevent future connection and re-connection

requests from being directed to a node that has lost access to the

underlying shared filesystem.

When the node regains access to the shared filesystem, the Matrix File

Share monitor automatically recreates the CIFS share and the node then

starts handling requests.