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SMB multichannel establishes multiple network connections to the PowerScale cluster over aggregated network interface cards (NICs), which results in balanced connections across CPU cores, effective consumption of combined bandwidth, and connection fault tolerance. Starting with PowerScale OneFS 7.1.1, OneFS supports the multichannel feature which applies to Microsoft Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 or later version.
It is important to meet software and NIC configuration requirements to support SMB multichannel on the PowerScale cluster. OneFS can only support SMB3 multichannel when the following software requirements are met:
SMB3 multichannel establishes a single SMB session over multiple network connections only on supported NIC configurations. SMB multichannel requires at least one of the following NIC configurations on the client computer:
SMB multichannel automatically discovers supported hardware configurations on the client that have multiple available network paths. Each node on the PowerScale cluster has at least one RSS-capable network interface card. The client-side NIC configuration shown in Table 12 determines how SMB multichannel establishes simultaneous network connections per SMB session.
Table 12. Client-side NIC Configuration Options
Client-side NIC Configuration | Description |
Single RSS-capable NIC | SMB multichannel establishes a maximum of four network connections to PowerScale node over the NIC. The connections are more likely to be spread across multiple CPU cores, which reduces the likelihood of performance bottleneck issues and achieves the maximum speed capability of the NIC. |
Multiple NICs | If the NICs are RSS-capable, SMB multichannel establishes a maximum of four network connections to the PowerScale cluster over each NIC. If the NICs on the client are not RSS-capable, SMB Multichannel establishes a single network connection to the PowerScale cluster over each NIC. Both configurations allow SMB Multichannel to leverage the combined bandwidth of multiple NICs and provides connection fault tolerance if a connection or a NIC fails. Note: SMB multichannel cannot establish more than eight simultaneous network connections per session. In a multiple NIC configuration, this might limit the number connections allowed per NIC. For example, if the configuration contains three RSS-capable NICs, SMB multichannel might establish three connections over the first NIC, three connections over the second NIC and two connections over the third NIC. |
Aggregated NICs | SMB multichannel establishes multiple network connections to the PowerScale cluster over aggregated NICs, which results in balanced connections across CPU cores, effective consumption of combined bandwidth, and connection fault tolerance. Note: The aggregated NIC configuration inherently provides NIC fault tolerance that is not dependent upon SMB. |
These are some key considerations that we recommend during the design and implementation: