SMB2 in the new Longhorn Server
Microsoft will modify the SMB protocol in WIndows Server Longhorn to SMB2.
This includes increasing the number of concurrent open file handles on the server, the number of shares that a server can share out amongst other key enhacements which inlcude:
- SMB2 will have transaction support, i.e. full two-phase commit transactional semantics are available over the new SMB protocol. This takes advantage of the new Transactional File System (TxF) feature in NTFS in Longhorn Server
- Client Side Encryption. This allows over the wire encryption of data, i.e. a file is encrypted on the client and sent out to the server where previously the file would have been sent in the clear over the wire and encrypted on the server
- Support for symbolic links over the new protocol
- Supports an arbitrary extensible way of compounding operations to reduce round trips. This is what will primarily enable less chattiness which has often been a major pain point
- The new protocol supports larger buffer sizes than previously allowed
Those modification will increase the performance of file transfer in Windows environment!