Creating an SMB Share in Nutanix Files

Your File Server VMs will be created by Expedient, but you will need to create SMB shares to begin using Nutanix Files.

Creating a new share is done in the ‘Files Console' within Prism Element GUI.

• In the dropdown menu, click Files

• Select the file server > then click Launch Files Console

1) In the Files Console, click the Shares & Exports tab

• Click the +New Share or Export button to create a new share

Fill in the name of the new share.

• Name

  • The name of the share will also be the path

    • Example: A File Server named ‘filesvr1’ and a share named ‘share1’ would have the path \\filesv1\share1

  Note the following naming conventions & limitations for Nutanix Files Shares (click arrow on the right to expand):

  • Files does not allow the following names:

    • Global

    • Printers

    • admin$ (reserved)

    • ipc$ (reserved)

    • homes (reserved)

  • Share names are not case-sensitive.

  • Each share name must be unique.

  • A share name must not start or end with a blank space.

  • A share name must not start with a dot (.)

  • A share name must follow a regular expression: ^[^!@#%~'\"^&$()\\[\\]|+=*{}\\/\\\\<>:;,’`]*[$]?$

  • Names that end with the $ are hidden shares.

  • See Configuration Maximums for name length limits.

• Description and Share Path are optional

  • You can create nested shares by specifying the path. Nested shares inherit some properties from the parent directory.

  • See Nested Shares and Exports for details.

• Max Size - A share size should be specified, if not it be the size of the file server.

• Primary Protocol Access - Your options are SMB, NFS or multi-protocol. Select SMB.

• Click Next

2) In the Settings tab you will choose what type of share you wish to create any other settings

• A Distributed share, also known as a home share, load-balances user data across multiple FSVMs by distributing top-level directories.

• A Standard share, also known as a general-purpose share, serves data and connections from a single FSVM.

  • The default setting of a new share is “Standard”

A distributed share is frequently used as the repository for the personal files of a user, while a standard share is frequently the repository shared by a group.

• Leave Enable Compression checked

• Self Service restore can be turned on later if required

• Click Next

3) In the Protocol Settings and Performance, select any additional SMB settings or alter permissions on the share

• View the Nutanix documentation for further details on each setting - Nutanix Support & Insights

• Click Next

4) Review the Summary page and if all settings are correct, click Create.

You will now be able to use your Nutanix Files SMB share.