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Hyper-V with the SMB 3 protocol
Fast Track
The SMB protocol is mainly known as the basis for file sharing in Windows and is familiar to Samba and Linux users, too. Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 use the new Server Message Block 3 (SMB 3) protocol, which has several advantages over the legacy version. Although it was already introduced with Windows Server 2012, it was once again improved in Windows Server 2012 R2. Rapid access to network storage especially benefits enterprise applications, such as SQL Server and virtual disks in Hyper-V.
The disks of virtual servers can reside on the network with Windows Server 2012 R2, for example, on file shares or iSCSI targets. Saving large files – like the disks of file-based virtual servers on the network – offers some advantages over block-based storage, including easier management. This is especially true if the files are stored in file shares, because you don't need to use external management tools or to change management workflows.
Windows Server 2012 R2 lets you use VHDX files as an iSCSI target. This means that Hyper-V hosts can store their data on iSCSI disks, which are in turn connected via SMB 3. VHDX files are also much more robust and allow sizes up to 64TB.
SMB 3 can forward SMB sessions belonging to services and users on virtual servers in clusters. If a virtual server is migrated between cluster nodes, the sessions remain active; users are not cut off from services during this operation. Thus, in addition to higher performance and better availability, SMB 3 also supports high availability.
New in SMB 2.0 and 2.1
SMB was initially developed by IBM and integrated by Microsoft into Windows in the mid-1990s via LAN Manager. Microsoft modified SMB 1.0 and submitted it to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and SMB was renamed to CIFS (Common Internet File System).
Microsoft immediately started improving SMB after taking it over from IBM.
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