Windows 2016 General Purpose File Server with Windows 7 Clients

Johannes Tröster 41 Reputation points
2020-09-21T12:43:21.773+00:00

Hello everybody,

I'm missing some experience concerning SMB 2.1 access for newer Versions 2012 R2+ Failoverclusters.

Several industry machines using Windows 7 are planned to store logs on a two-node Server 2016 general purpose fileserver cluster. The machines access the cluster via UNC-Path containing the virtual IP of the cluster, e.g. \192.168.1.101\logs

My oppinion at the moment is, that transparent failover is only possible with SMB3 Clients.

How is the failover managed accessing with SMB 2.1? Will there be any restrictions using SMB 2.1?

Thanks in advance & best regards

Windows Server Clustering
Windows Server Clustering
Windows Server: A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.Clustering: The grouping of multiple servers in a way that allows them to appear to be a single unit to client computers on a network. Clustering is a means of increasing network capacity, providing live backup in case one of the servers fails, and improving data security.
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  1. Leon Laude 85,651 Reputation points
    2020-09-21T12:51:36.847+00:00

    Hi @Johannes Tröster ,

    To be able to use SMB Transparent Failover, both the SMB client computer and the SMB server computer must support SMB 3.0, which is introduced in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

    Computers running lower SMB versions, such as 1.0, 2.0 or 2.1 can connect and access data on a file share that has the continuously available property set, but will not be able to realize the benefits of the SMB Transparent Failover feature.

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    (If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote or accept as answer, thank you)

    Best regards,
    Leon

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  1. Xiaowei He 9,871 Reputation points
    2020-09-22T06:27:39.267+00:00

    Hi,

    SMB Transparent Failover is one of the key features in the feature set introduced in Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0. SMB 3.0 is new in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.

    So, SMB Transparent Failover only possible with SMB3 Clients. Please check the following article for detailed information:

    https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/storage-at-microsoft/smb-transparent-failover-8211-making-file-shares-continuously/ba-p/425693

    Thanks for your time!
    Best Regards,
    Anne

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  2. Johannes Tröster 41 Reputation points
    2020-09-22T07:32:07.993+00:00

    How is the Failover handled with SMB 2.1 Clients? Will there be connection losses e.g. if a file is opened writing logs?

    Best Regards