In this post, I'm providing a reference to the most relevant content related to Windows Server 2012 that is related to the File Server, the SMB 3.0 features and its associated scenarios like Hyper-V over SMB and SQL Server over SMB. It's obviously not a complete reference (there are new blog posts every day), but hopefully this is a useful collection of links for Windows Server 2012 users.
Summaries of SMB 3.0 features in Windows Server 2012
- Overview of SMB 3.0 in WIndows Server 2012 [Video] [TechEd]
- Windows Server 2012: Which version of the SMB protocol (SMB 1.0, SMB 2.0, SMB 2.1 or SMB 3.0) you are using on your File Server?
- Windows Server Blog - SMB 2.2 is now SMB 3.0. Great overview of SMB 3.0 scenarios and features
- Windows Server Blog - Taking Server Application Storage to Windows File Shares.
- Storage and Continuous Availability Enhancements in Windows Server 8
- High-Performance, Continuously Available File Share Storage for Server Applications
- SMB 3 Security Enhancements in Windows Server 2012 (Includes SMB Encryption)
Articles on File Storage for Application Servers (Hyper-V over SMB, SQL Server over SMB)
- Hyper-V over SMB [Video] [TechEd]
- SQL Server over SMB [Video] [TechEd]
- Test Hyper-V over SMB configuration with Windows Server 2012 - Step-by-step Installation using PowerShell
- Windows Server 2012 Scale-Out File Server for SQL Server 2012 - Step-by-step Installation
- Overview of Hyper-V over SMB from the SNW Spring 2012 Conference
- Windows Server 2012 Beta - Test cases for Hyper-V over SMB (includes PowerShell examples)
- Windows Server 2012 Beta - Hyper-V over SMB - Quick Provisioning a VM on an SMB File Share
- Enabling Hyper-V Remote Management - Configuring Constrained Delegation For SMB and Highly Available SMB
- System Center 2012 CTP for Windows Server “8” Beta support - Includes support for Hyper-V over SMB
Articles on SMB Transparent Failover and SMB Scale-Out
- SMB Transparent Failover – making file shares continuously available
- File Server for Scale-Out application data
- Deep dive on Transparent Failover and Scale-Out [Video] [TechEd]
- Understand and Troubleshoot Scale-out File Servers in Windows Server "8" Beta
Articles on SMB Direct (SMB over RDMA) and SMB Multichannel
- The basics of SMB Multichannel, a feature of Windows Server 2012 and SMB 3.0
- SMB Multichannel and NIC Teaming [Video] [TechEd] (SMB Multichannel covered on the second half)
- SMB Direct (SMB over RDMA) and Cluster-in-a-box [Video] [TechEd] (SMB direct covered on the second half)
- Overview of SMB Direct, SMB Multichannel and SMB Scale-Out from the SNW Spring 2012 Conference
- Deploying Windows Server 2012 with SMB Direct (SMB over RDMA) and the Chelsio T4 cards using iWARP – Step by Step
- Deploying Windows Server 2012 with SMB Direct (SMB over RDMA) and the Mellanox ConnectX-3 using 10GbE/40GbE RoCE – Step by Step
- Deploying Windows Server 2012 with SMB Direct (SMB over RDMA) and the Intel NetEffect NE020 card using iWARP – Step by Step
- Deploying Windows Server 2012 with SMB Direct (SMB over RDMA) and the Mellanox ConnectX-2/ConnectX-3 using InfiniBand – Step by Step
- Fast and Efficient File Servers for Server Applications. Covers SMB Multichannel and SMB Direct.
- Preliminary performance results with Windows Server 2012 Beta and SMB Direct (SMB over RDMA)
- Deploying Windows Server 2012 with SMB Direct (SMB over RDMA) and the Chelsio T4 cards using iWARP – Step by Step
Articles on Failover Clustering related to File Server Clusters
- How to Enable CSV Cache - Used by Scale-out File Servers
- How to Configure an Alias for a Clustered SMB Share with Windows Server 2012
- Draining Nodes for Planned Maintenance with Windows Server 2012
Articles on other SMB 3.0 features and capabilities
- The basics of SMB PowerShell, a feature of Windows Server 2012 and SMB 3.0
- Windows Server 2012 and SMB 3.0 – VSS for SMB File Shares
- A developer's view on VSS for SMB File Shares
- Episode 20 of "From End to Edge and Beyond" covers SMB Encryption in Windows Server 2012 and SMB 3.0
- Windows PowerShell Reference Sheet for File and Storage Services in Windows Server “8” Beta
- SMB Management API
Private Cloud Solution Architecture
- Windows Server 2012 and SMB 3.0 demos at TechEd showcase File Server with multiple storage configurations and technologies
- Cloud Datacenter Network Architecture in the Windows Server “8” era
- Cloud Datacenter Storage Approaches in the Windows Server 2012 era
- Building Your Cloud Infrastructure: Converged Data Center with File Server Storage
- Let’s Build a Cloud… With PowerShell! - Part 1: Deployment and Configuration
White Papers
- Application Compatibility and API Support for SMB 2.2, CSVFS, and ReFS
- Windows 8 SMB 2.2 File Sharing Performance
Other Videos
- List of all video recordings related to SMB 3.0 from TechEd North America
- TechNet Radio: “Road to TechEd 2012” - File Storage Support in Windows Server 2012 [Video] with Jose Barreto
- Windows Server 8 - Storage Changes [Video] - Thomas Pfenning talks about Storage and Availability in Windows Server 2012
- New Server form factors, Continuous Availability [Video] - John Loveall shows the new Cluster-in-a-box systems.
- Microsoft Management Summit keynote [Video] - Brad Anderson on System Center 2012 and Windows Server 2012
- How Microsoft Secures Sensitive Data Using File Classification Infrastructure [Video] - Nir Ben Zvi talks about FCI
- SNIA’s Storage Developer Conference - SDC 2011 content (slides and videos) now available for download
- Links to //build/ sessions on Storage, Networking and Hyper-V - Links to //Build to both videos and PowerPoint files
Knowledge Base articles (Support KBs) about Windows Server 2012 SMB 3.0
- Some Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate file server features require SMB 3.0 support
- Some SMB share properties are only available in updated tools
- File Server Cluster names longer than 15 chars are not supported
- SMB connections fail with error "Invalid Signature"
Protocol Documentation
- [MS-SMB2]: Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol Versions 2 and 3 Specification (Windows 8)
- [MS-SMBD]: SMB2 Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) Transport Protocol Specification
- [MS-FSRVP]: File Server Remote VSS Provider Protocol Specification
- [MS-SWN]: Service Witness Protocol Specification
-------
Change tracking:
- 04/24/2012: Original post
- 05/01/2012: Update: Added links to two SNW Spring 2012 presentation
- 05/03/2012: Update: Added links to protocol documentation, blog post on SMB Encryption and private could blog post
- 05/18/2012: Update: Added links to SDC presentations, plus blogs on basics of SMB PowerShell and SMB PowerShell
- 06/13/2012: Update: Added 3 new blog post, one new KB article, one new video link
- 08/02/2012: Update: Additional blog posts and links to TechEd recordings
- 08/26/2012: Update: Two additional blog posts