Skip to main content

SMB share naming requirements

Contributors netapp-thomi netapp-aherbin
PDFs

You should keep the ONTAP share naming requirements in mind when creating SMB shares on your SMB server.

Share naming conventions for ONTAP are the same as for Windows and include the following requirements:

  • The name of each share must be unique for the SMB server.

  • Share names are not case-sensitive.

  • The maximum share name length is 80 characters.

  • Unicode share names are supported.

  • Share names ending with the $ character are hidden shares.

  • For ONTAP 9.7 and earlier, the admin$, ipc$, and c$ administrative shares are automatically created on every CIFS server and are reserved share names. Beginning with ONTAP 9.8, the admin$ share is no longer automatically created.

  • You cannot use the share name ONTAP_ADMIN$ when creating a share.

  • Share names containing spaces are supported:

    • You cannot use a space as the first character or as the last character in a share name.

    • You must enclose share names containing a space in quotation marks.

      Note

      Single quotation marks are considered part of the share name and cannot be used in place of quotation marks.

  • The following special characters are supported when you name SMB shares:

    ! @ # $ % & ' _ - . ~ ( ) { }

  • The following special characters are not supported when you name SMB shares:

    • ❏ " / \ : ; | < > , ? * =