A SMB server is proposed for Linux kernel

To include the next release of the Linux kernel Proposed New implementation of the file server using the SMB3 protocol. The server is decorated in the form of a KSMBD kernel module and complements the previously available SMB client code. It is noted that, unlike the SMB server running in the user space, the implementation of the kernel is more efficient in terms of performance, memory consumption and integration with advanced core capabilities.

From KSMBD features, improved support for distributed file caching technology (SMB Leases) on local systems, which allows you to significantly reduce traffic. In the future, it is planned to add new features, such as support for RDMA (“SMBDirect”), as well as protocol extensions related to enhancing the reliability of encryption and verification on digital signatures. It is noted that such extensions are much easier to implement in a compact and well-optimized server running at the kernel level than in the Samba package.

At the same time, KSMBD does not apply for the role of full SAMBA package, which is not limited to the features of the file server and provides tools covering the security services, LDAP and the domain controller. The implementation of the file server in Samba is cross-platform and calculated on wider applications, which makes it difficult for optimization for some Linux environments, such as firmware for limited resource devices.

KSMBD is considered not as a separate product, but rather as high-performance and ready for use on embedded devices extension to Samba, if necessary, integrated with tools and Samba libraries. For example, KSMBD developers have already agreed with the Samba developers using compatible configuration files and extended attributes (Xattrs), which will simplify the transition from SMBD to KSMBD and vice versa.

/Media reports.