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# Create SMB shares

Network-attached storage is a file-level storage architecture that makes stored data more accessible to networked devices.

## About this task

See Understanding PowerMax File for storage systems for an overview of PowerMax File.

An SMB file system allows you to create multiple shares with the same local path. In these cases, you can specify different host-side access controls for different users, but the shares within the file system will all access common content. A directory must exist before you can create shares on it. Therefore, if you want the SMB shares within the same file system to access different content, you must first create a directory on the Windows host that is mapped to the file system. Then, you can create corresponding shares using Unisphere.

A NAS server must be configured to support SMB protocol before creating a file system.

## Steps

1. Select a storage system that supports PowerMax File.
2. Select Storage > File.
3. Select the SMB SHARES tab.
4. Click Create.
5. Select a file system (that has been enabled for SMB) where the SMB share is to be created. Click NEXT.
6. Optional: Select one of the file system snapshots on which to create the share. Only snapshots are supported for file system protection policies. Replication is not supported for file systems. Click NEXT.
7. Enter the SMB Share settings: Name, Description, and Local Path. Click NEXT.
   When entering the local path:
   - You can create multiple shares with the same local path on a single SMB file system. In these cases, you can specify different host-side access controls for different users, but the shares within the file system have access to common content.
   - A directory must exist before you can create shares on it. If you want the SMB shares within the same file system to access different content, you must first create a directory on the Windows host that is mapped to the file system. Then, you can create corresponding shares using PowerMax. You can also create and manage SMB shares from the Microsoft Management Console.
   PowerMax also created the SMB Share path, which uses the host to connect to the share. The export path is the IP address of the file system, and the name of the share. Hosts use either the file name or the share path to mount or map to the share from a network host.
8. Configure the following: Access Based Enumeration, , , and Branch Cache Enabled. Select a value for Online availability. Specify the Umask value.
   - Continuous Availability-Gives host applications transparent, continuous access to a share following a failover of the NAS server on the system (with the NAS server internal state saved or restoredduring the failover process). This ensures transparent failover of File system access by clients.

     | NOTE: Enable continuous availability for a share only when you want to use Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 protocol clients with the specific share.

   - Protocol Encryption-Enables SMB encryption of the network traffic through the share. SMB encryption is supported by SMB 3.0 clients and above. By default, access is denied if an SMB 2 client attempts to access a share with protocol encryption enabled. You can control this by configuring the RejectUnencryptedAccess registry key on the NAS Server. 1 (default) rejects non-encrypted access and 0 allows clients that do not support encryption to access the file system without encryption.
   - Access Based Enumeration-Filters the list of available files and directories on the share to include only those to which the requesting user has read access.

     | NOTE: Administrators can always list all files.

   - Branch Cache Enabled-Copies content from the share and caches it at branch offices. This allows client computers at branch offices to access the content locally rather than over the WAN. BranchCache is managed from Microsoft hosts.
   - Offline Availability-Configures the client-side caching of offline files:
     - Manual-Files are cached and available offline only when caching is explicitly requested.
     - Programs and files opened by users-All files that clients open from the share are automatically cached and available offline. Clients open these files from the share when they are connected to it. This option is recommended for files with shared work.
     - Programs and files opened by users, optimize for performance-All files that clients open from the share are automatically cached and available offline. Clients open these files from the share's local cache, if possible, even when they are connected to the network. This option is recommended for executable programs.
     - None-Client-side caching of offline files is not configured.
9. Do one of the following:
   - Expand Run In The Background, and click Run In The Background to perform the operation in the background.
   - Expand Run In The Background, and click Add to Job List to add this task to the job list, from which you can schedule or run the task at your convenience. For more information, see Schedule jobs and Preview jobs