While Windows Server 2008 and Vista introduces the version 2.0 of the Server Message Block protocol (aka File and Printer Sharing in humanly readable words), Windows Server 2008-R2 and Seven both bring a refreshed version, the 2.1. Instead of drilling down right-here into the protocol's details, I found more useful to post links to the most interesting resources on the Web.

Protocol Specification and Details

• MSDN - File System Behavior in the Microsoft Windows Environment
• MSDN – Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol Specification
• MSDN - Server Message Block (SMB) Version 2 Protocol Specification
• MSDN Channel 9 - Server Message Block (SMB2.1) Drill-down
• MSDN channel 9 - File Access Services Systems Overview Presentation
• Wireshark Wiki - Server Message Block Protocol (SMB)
• Wireshark Wiki – Server Message Block Protocol (SMB) Version 2
• Jose Barreto’s Blog – File Server Performance Improvements with SMB2 Protocol in Windows Server 2008
• Ask the Performance Team Blog – Two Minute Drill Overview of SMB2

Tuning and Optimization

• MSDN Channel 9 - Windows 7: Optimizing Applications for Remote File Services over the WAN
• Microsoft Windows Hardware Developer Central– Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008 R2 (see chapter “Performance Tuning for File Servers”)
• Neil Carpenter's Blog - SMB/CIFS Performance Over WAN Links
• Microsoft Open Specification Support Team Blog - SMB 2.1 Multi-Credit (Large MTU) Operations
• TechNet Magazine - End-to-End WAN Optimization with BranchCache
• MSDN Code - BranchCache Bandwidth Saving Calculation PowerShell Script for the SMB Protocol

Support and Troubleshooting

• MSDN Channel 9 - Troubleshooting Windows SMB/SMB2 Issues
• MSDN Code - Diagnosing a BranchCache deployment for the SMB protocol
• MS KB - MS09-050: Vulnerabilities in SMB could allow remote code execution

Extra Goodies: Multi-threaded Robocopy and GUI

Although not directly related to SMB 2.1, Robocopy was also updated with the recent version of Windows. The main improvement is the support for multi-threaded operations, particularly interesting when massive file copy operations must take place against small files over WAN connections. I will cover this in details in a coming post. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd542631.aspx for details. Important to note that this option is NOT compatible with the inter-packet gap option (copy using throttling).

Not so new, for those reluctant to learn and exploit all Robocopy command-lines params, there are cool GUI’s available out there, RichCopy being, like its names says it all, the richest one.

Marc

I am usually reluctant to mirror other blogger’s contents or just post links but in this case I decided to make an exceptional exception. “Black Viper” (sounds like a gamer tag isn’t it?) published a comprehensive guide over Windows Server 2009 R2 and windows Seven System Service configuration covering all OS flavors. Have a look at it prior starting any optimization or hardening work!

• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Seven

Previous Windows versions are also available btw.

From Hervé Schauer Consulting you might also find this (blast from the past, read “up to XP/Server 2003”) set of information useful:

• Windows network services internals
• Windows Systems Network Services

Marc