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

Introduction

The Matrix File Serving Solution Pack for CIFS (MxFS for CIFS) and

PolyServe Matrix Server 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.

MxFS for CIFS file shares can be deployed in two ways: with Virtual CIFS

Servers that provide failover support, or with Matrix File Shares that

enable connection load balancing. In both methods, the data to be shared

is stored on the Matrix Server PSFS filesystem.

MxFS for CIFS 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

Virtual CIFS Server. MxFS for CIFS provides a monitor for each CIFS file

share. This monitor periodically checks the ability of the primary and

backup nodes to access the file share. If the primary node fails or loses its

connection to the PSFS filesystem, the ClusterPulse process (provided