Dell requires running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 on the storage nodes. Dell recommends you to run Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 on all SMB clients. You can use Microsoft Windows Server 2012 for SMB clients, Dell recommends that you use Windows Server 2012 R2 so that the SMB clients have access to the new SMB features introduced in Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2.
Feature |
Summary |
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Automatic rebalancing of Scale-Out File Server clients |
Changes the functionality on how SMB clients connect to each scale-out file share. SMB clients are redirected to the node in the cluster, which provides the optimal path to the CSV. This reduces redirected I/O between the storage nodes. |
Improved performance of SMB Direct (SMB over RDMA) |
Provides various performance improvements for small I/O workloads. |
Improved SMB event messages |
Provides more information in the SMB event logging, which is used to assist in troubleshooting some network failure conditions. |
Hyper-V Live Migration over SMB |
Enables the use of advanced SMB features for Live Migration, such as SMB Direct and SMB Multichannel. |
Improved SMB bandwidth management |
Expands SMB bandwidth management capability to control different types of SMB traffic. |
Support for multiple SMB instances on a Scale-Out File Server |
Provides capability for each storage node to be able to segregate intra-cluster CSV and SMB traffic in separate instances. |