3.6.1 HP PolyServe Software for Windows File Serving Administration Guide (T5392-96019, July 2008)

Chapter2:Introduction 4
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.HPPolyServeSof twareprovidesamonitorforeach
CIFSfileshare.Thismonitorperiodically
checkstheabilityofthep rimary
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withMatrixServer)willfailover,ormigrate,theVirtualCIFS
Servertooneofthebackupservers,whereit
willcontinuetoprovide
accesstothesamePSFSfilesystemdataunderthesamename/IP‐address
pair.
Thisdeploymentmethodworkswellwithclientsrunningmodern
WindowsoperatingsystemssuchasWindowsXPandWindows2000.To
takeadvantageofthetransparentfailoverfeature,clientsmustconnectto
theVirtualCIFS
ServerusingeithertheFullyQualifiedDomainName
(FQDN)ortheIPaddress.Thishelpsavoidconflictswithlegacy
(NetBIOS)network‐nameresolutionmethods.IfNetBIOSname
resolutionisarequirement,thentheMatrixFileSharedeployment
methodshouldbeusedinstead.
Matrix File Shares
MatrixFileSharesareWindowsCIFSsharesassociatedwithaMatrix
Serverfilesystemhealthmonitor.ClientsconnecttoMatrixFileShares
usingthenetworknameorIPaddressofanyphysical(ratherthan 
virtual)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aredesignedtobedeployedwith
aconnection‐orientedloadbalancersuchastheMicrosoftDistributedFile
System(DFS).WhendeployedwithaDFSfrontend,clientconnection