Configuring existing shares for continuous availability

You can modify existing shares to become continuously available shares that the Hyper-V and SQL Server application servers use to nondisruptively access Hyper-V virtual machine and configuration files and SQL Server database files.

About this task

You cannot use an existing share as a continuously available share for nondisruptive operations with application servers over SMB if the share has the following characteristics:

If the homedirectory share property is set on that share
If the share contains enabled symlinks or widelinks
If the share contains junctioned volumes below the root of the share

You must verify that the two following share parameters are set correctly:

The -offline-files parameter is set to either manual (the default) or none.
Symlinks must be disabled.

The following share properties must be configured:

continuously-available
oplocks

The following share properties must not be set. If they are present in the list of current share properties, they need to be removed from the continuously available share:

changenotify
attributecache
branchcache
access-based-enumeration

Steps

Display the current share parameter settings and the current list of configured share properties: vserver cifs share show -vserver vserver_name -share-name share_name
If necessary, modify the share parameters to disable symlinks and set offline files to manual by using the vserver cifs share properties modify command.
You can disable symlinks by setting the value of the -symlink parameter to "".
- You can disable symlinks by setting the value of the -symlink parameter to "".
- You can set the -offline-files parameter to the correct setting by specifying manual.
Add the continuously-available share property, and, if needed, the oplocks share property: vserver cifs share properties add -vserver vserver_name -share-name share_name -share-properties continuously-available[,oplock]
If the oplocks share property is not already set, you must add it along with the continuously-available share property.
Remove any share properties that are not supported on continuously available shares: vserver cifs share properties remove -vserver vserver_name -share-name share_name -share-properties properties[,...]
You can remove one or more share properties by specifying the share properties with a comma-delimited list.
Verify that the -symlink and -offline-files parameters are set correctly: vserver cifs share show -vserver vserver_name -share-name share_name -fields symlink-properties,offline-files
Verify that the list of configured share properties is correct: vserver cifs shares properties show -vserver vserver_name -share-name share_name

Examples

The following example shows how to configure an existing share named "share1" on Storage Virtual Machine (SVM) vs1 for NDOs with an application server over SMB:

Symlinks are disabled on the share by setting the -symlink parameter to "".
The -offline-file parameter is modified and set to manual.
The continuously-available share property is added to the share.
The oplocks share property is already in the list of share properties; therefore, it does not need to be added.
The attributecache and changenotify share properties are removed from the share.
The browsable share property is optional for a continuously available share used for NDOs with application servers over SMB and is retained as one of the share properties.

cluster1::> vserver cifs share show -vserver vs1 -share-name share1

                      Vserver: vs1
                        Share: share1
     CIFS Server NetBIOS Name: vs1
                         Path: /data
             Share Properties: oplocks
                               browsable
                               changenotify
                               attributecache
           Symlink Properties: enable
      File Mode Creation Mask: -
 Directory Mode Creation Mask: -
                Share Comment: -
                    Share ACL: Everyone / Full Control
File Attribute Cache Lifetime: 10s
                  Volume Name: data
                Offline Files: documents
Vscan File-Operations Profile: standard

cluster1::> vserver cifs share modify -vserver vs1 -share-name share1 -offline-file manual -symlink ""

cluster1::> vserver cifs share properties add -vserver vs1 -share-name share1 -share-properties continuously-available

cluster1::> vserver cifs share properties remove -vserver vs1 -share-name share1 -share-properties attributecache,changenotify

cluster1::> vserver cifs share show -vserver vs1 -share-name share1 -fields symlink-properties,offline-files
vserver  share-name symlink-properties offline-files
-------- ---------- ------------------ -------------
vs1      share1    -                  manual

cluster1::> vserver cifs share properties show -vserver vs1 -share-name share1

         Vserver: vs1
           Share: share1
Share Properties: oplocks
                  browsable
                  continuously-available