Continuously Available SMB Observations and Lessons Learned

This talk will offer a walk-through of design points and protocol changes that enable continuously available SMB file access. It will describe the iterative changes and thinking in the SMB protocol that took us from durability and resiliency in SMB2 to the CA support in SMB3, and discuss how the architecture built on lessons learned in each release. It will also examine in greater detail some of the more complex aspects of handle recovery in CA, and look at what simplifying assumptions can be made during development as you step towards a final solution.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand the different forms of handle recovery in SMB 2 and 3, and how they build on each other, as well as determine which ones are relevant for you to support.
Get a solid overview of how handle recovery in SMB 3 works.
Understand some of the more subtle and technical aspects of handle recovery (for either client or server) at a deeper level.