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Available SMB server options

Contributors netapp-ahibbard netapp-thomi

It is useful to know what options are available when considering how to customize the SMB server. Although some options are for general use on the SMB server, several are used to enable and configure specific SMB functionality. SMB server options are controlled with the vserver cifs options modify option.

The following list specifies the SMB server options that are available at the admin privilege level:

  • Configuring the SMB session timeout value

    Configuring this option enables you to specify the number of seconds of idle time before an SMB session is disconnected. An idle session is a session in which a user does not have any files or directories opened on the client. The default value is 900 seconds.

  • Configuring the default UNIX user

    Configuring this option enables you to specify the default UNIX user that the SMB server uses. ONTAP automatically creates a default user named “pcuser” (with a UID of 65534), creates a group named “pcuser” (with a GID of 65534), and adds the default user to the “pcuser” group. When you create a SMB server, ONTAP automatically configures “pcuser” as the default UNIX user.

  • Configuring the guest UNIX user

    Configuring this option enables you to specify the name of a UNIX user to which users who log in from untrusted domains are mapped, which allows a user from an untrusted domain to connect to the SMB server. By default, this option is not configured (there is no default value); therefore, the default is to not allow users from untrusted domains to connect to the SMB server.

  • Enabling or disabling read grant execution for mode bits

    Enabling or disabling this option enables you to specify whether to allow SMB clients to run executable files with UNIX mode bits to which they have read access, even when the UNIX executable bit is not set. This option is disabled by default.

  • Enabling or disabling the ability to delete read-only files from NFS clients

    Enabling or disabling this option determines whether to allow NFS clients to delete files or folders with the read-only attribute set. NTFS delete semantics does not allow the deletion of a file or folder when the read-only attribute is set. UNIX delete semantics ignores the read-only bit, using the parent directory permissions instead to determine whether a file or folder can be deleted. The default setting is disabled, which results in NTFS delete semantics.

  • Configuring Windows Internet Name Service server addresses

    Configuring this option enables you to specify a list of Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) server addresses as a comma-delimited list. You must specify IPv4 addresses. IPv6 addresses are not supported. There is no default value.

The following list specifies the SMB server options that are available at the advanced privilege level:

  • Granting UNIX group permissions to CIFS users

    Configuring this option determines whether the incoming CIFS user who is not the owner of the file can be granted the group permission. If the CIFS user is not the owner of the UNIX security-style file and this parameter is set to true, then the group permission is granted for the file. If the CIFS user is not the owner of the UNIX security-style file and this parameter is set to false, then the normal UNIX rules are applicable to grant the file permission. This parameter is applicable to UNIX security-style files that have permission set as mode bits and is not applicable to files with the NTFS or NFSv4 security mode. The default setting is false.

  • Enabling or disabling SMB 1.0

    SMB 1.0 is disabled by default on an SVM for which a SMB server is created in ONTAP 9.3.

    Note

    Beginning ONTAP 9.3, SMB 1.0 is disabled by default for new SMB servers created in ONTAP 9.3. You should migrate to a later SMB version as soon as possible to prepare for security and compliance enhancements. Contact your NetApp representative for details.

  • Enabling or disabling SMB 2.x

    SMB 2.0 is the minimum SMB version that supports LIF failover. If you disable SMB 2.x, ONTAP also automatically disables SMB 3.X.

    SMB 2.0 is supported only on SVMs. The option is enabled by default on SVMs

  • Enabling or disabling SMB 3.0

    SMB 3.0 is the minimum SMB version that supports continuously available shares. Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 are the minimum Windows versions that support SMB 3.0.

    SMB 3.0 is supported only on SVMs. The option is enabled by default on SVMs

  • Enabling or disabling SMB 3.1

    Windows 10 is the only Windows version that supports SMB 3.1.

    SMB 3.1 is supported only on SVMs. The option is enabled by default on SVMs

  • Enabling or disabling ODX copy offload

    ODX copy offload is used automatically by Windows clients that support it. This option is enabled by default.

  • Enabling or disabling the direct-copy mechanism for ODX copy offload

    The direct-copy mechanism increases the performance of the copy offload operation when Windows clients try to open the source file of a copy in a mode that prevents the file being changed while the copy is in progress. By default, the direct copy mechanism is enabled.

  • Enabling or disabling automatic node referrals

    With automatic node referrals, the SMB server automatically refers clients to a data LIF local to the node that hosts the data accessed through the requested share.

  • Enabling or disabling export policies for SMB

    This option is disabled by default.

  • Enabling or disabling using junction points as reparse points

    If this option is enabled, the SMB server exposes junction points to SMB clients as reparse points. This option is valid only for SMB 2.x or SMB 3.0 connections. This option is enabled by default.

    This option is supported only on SVMs. The option is enabled by default on SVMs

  • Configuring the number of maximum simultaneous operations per TCP connection

    The default value is 255.

  • Enabling or disabling local Windows users and groups functionality

    This option is enabled by default.

  • Enabling or disabling local Windows users authentication

    This option is enabled by default.

  • Enabling or disabling VSS shadow copy functionality

    ONTAP uses the shadow copy functionality to perform remote backups of data stored using the Hyper-V over SMB solution.

    This option is supported only on SVMs, and only for Hyper-V over SMB configurations. The option is enabled by default on SVMs

  • Configuring the shadow copy directory depth

    Configuring this option enables you to define the maximum depth of directories on which to create shadow copies when using the shadow copy functionality.

    This option is supported only on SVMs, and only for Hyper-V over SMB configurations. The option is enabled by default on SVMs

  • Enabling or disabling multidomain search capabilities for name mapping

    If enabled, when a UNIX user is mapped to a Windows domain user by using a wildcard (*) in the domain portion of the Windows user name (for example, *\joe), ONTAP searches for the specified user in all of the domains with bidirectional trusts to the home domain. The home domain is the domain that contains the SMB server's computer account.

    As an alternative to searching all of the bidirectionally trusted domains, you can configure a list of preferred trusted domains. If this option is enabled and a preferred list is configured, the preferred list is used to perform multidomain name mapping searches.

    The default is to enable multidomain name mapping searches.

  • Configuring the file system sector size

    Configuring this option enables you to configure the file system sector size in bytes that ONTAP reports to SMB clients. There are two valid values for this option: 4096 and 512. The default value is 4096. You might need to set this value to 512 if the Windows application supports only a sector size of 512 bytes.

  • Enabling or disabling Dynamic Access Control

    Enabling this option enables you to secure objects on the SMB server by using Dynamic Access Control (DAC), including using auditing to stage central access policies and using Group Policy Objects to implement central access policies. The option is disabled by default.

    This option is supported only on SVMs.

  • Setting the access restrictions for non-authenticated sessions (restrict anonymous)

    Setting this option determines what the access restrictions are for non-authenticated sessions. The restrictions are applied to anonymous users. By default, there are no access restrictions for anonymous users.

  • Enabling or disabling the presentation of NTFS ACLs on volumes with UNIX effective security (UNIX security-style volumes or mixed security-style volumes with UNIX effective security)

    Enabling or disabling this option determines how file security on files and folders with UNIX security is presented to SMB clients. If enabled, ONTAP presents files and folders in volumes with UNIX security to SMB clients as having NTFS file security with NTFS ACLs. If disabled, ONTAP presents volumes with UNIX security as FAT volumes, with no file security. By default, volumes are presented as having NTFS file security with NTFS ACLs.

  • Enabling or disabling the SMB fake open functionality

    Enabling this functionality improves SMB 2.x and SMB 3.0 performance by optimizing how ONTAP makes open and close requests when querying for attribute information on files and directories. By default, the SMB fake open functionality is enabled. This option is useful only for connections that are made with SMB 2.x or later.

  • Enabling or disabling the UNIX extensions

    Enabling this option enables UNIX extensions on a SMB server. UNIX extensions allow POSIX/UNIX style security to be displayed through the SMB protocol. By default this option is disabled.

    If you have UNIX-based SMB clients, such as Mac OSX clients, in your environment, you should enable UNIX extensions. Enabling UNIX extensions allows the SMB server to transmit POSIX/UNIX security information over SMB to the UNIX-based client, which then translates the security information into POSIX/UNIX security.

  • Enabling or disabling support for short name searches

    Enabling this option allows the SMB server to perform searches on short names. A search query with this option enabled tries to match 8.3 file names along with long file names. The default value for this parameter is false.

  • Enabling or disabling support for automatic advertisement of DFS capabilities

    Enabling or disabling this option determines whether SMB servers automatically advertise DFS capabilities to SMB 2.x and SMB 3.0 clients that connect to shares. ONTAP uses DFS referrals in the implementation of symbolic links for SMB access. If enabled, the SMB server always advertises DFS capabilities regardless of whether symbolic link access is enabled. If disabled, the SMB server advertises DFS capabilities only when the clients connect to shares where symbolic link access is enabled.

  • Configuring the maximum number of SMB credits

    Beginning with ONTAP 9.4, configuring the -max-credits option allows you to limit the number of credits to be granted on an SMB connection when clients and server are running SMB version 2 or later. The default value is 128.

  • Enabling or disabling support for SMB Multichannel

    Enabling the -is-multichannel-enabled option in ONTAP 9.4 and later releases allows the SMB server to establish multiple connections for a single SMB session when appropriate NICs are deployed on the cluster and its clients. Doing so improves throughput and fault tolerance. The default value for this parameter is false.

    When SMB Multichannel is enabled, you can also specify the following parameters:

    • The maximum number of connections allowed per Multichannel session. The default value for this parameter is 32.

    • The maximum number of network interfaces advertised per Multichannel session. The default value for this parameter is 256.