4.0.0 HP PolyServe Software for Windows File Serving administration guide (T5392-96047, March 2010)

1 Introduction
The HP PolyServe Software for Windows File Serving (HP PolyServe Software) and
HP 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.
HP PolyServe Software 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.
With both Virtual CIFS Servers and Matrix File Shares, the data to be shared is stored
on the Matrix Server PSFS filesystem. The data can be placed in shared subdirectories
that are one level under the filesystem path. CIFS clients can then attach directly to
the subdirectories. HP PolyServe Software supports up to 5000 active subdirectory
shares per node at any time.
Each Virtual CIFS Server is associated with one or more Virtual File Shares. Virtual
File Shares and Matrix File Shares include monitors that periodically check access
to the PSFS filesystem. The matrix software supports up to 128 HP PolyServe monitors,
including Virtual File Share and Matrix File Share monitors.
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 Software 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 with Matrix Server) will fail over, or migrate, the
HP PolyServe Software for Windows File Serving administration guide 5