Advancing Access to Remote Files: Exploring Recent Enhancements to the Linux SMB3.1.1 Client

Wed Sep 20 | 2:30pm
Location:
Salon VI, Salon VII
Abstract

The Linux SMB3.1.1 client continues to be one of the most active filesystems in Linux with many improvements added each year, enhancing its ability to securely, reliably and efficiently access remote data. This presentation will cover new features added to the Linux client, and new features you can expect to see over the coming year. Whether accessing data from the smallest devices or the largest (and even the cloud), getting at remote files matters. The SMB3.1.1 client continues to be the most active network/cluster filesystem on Linux over the past year, with many recent enhancements, and progress on servers on Linux (Samba and also the kernel server ksmbd) has also been excellent. Over the past year, significant improvements have been made to metadata and directory caching, multichannel performance, symlink handling, remote swapfiles, improved readahead, better file caching, enhanced POSIX/Linux compatibility, improved TMPFILE support, and even improvements to DFS (global name space support). It has been a great year for the Linux client, but we will also describe some of the improvements to the Linux kernel server (ksmbd) and how the addition of the Linux kernel server has helped advance the kernel client even faster.

Learning Objectives

  • What new features for accessing servers from Linux are now available? How has the SMB3.1.1 client improved?
  • What new features (or syscalls) have been added to the Linux File System layer that we have to be aware of?
  • How do I use these features? What are some common suggestions to users (mount options, tools, configuration settings) accessing files remotely from Linux?
  • What new network filesystem features are expected to be added over the coming year (to the client and server) to improve remote access to files?
  • What do we need to do to make the Linux user experience even better accessing remote files? What do we need to do to extend the protocol, the client and/or the server?

---

Steven French
Microsoft
Related Sessions