There is a new blog post by Claus Joergensen, a Principal Program Manager in the File Server team, that covers the SMB Transparent Failover feature in Windows Server 2012 and SMB 3.0. Claus covers all the details about making file shares continuously available, including step-by-step instructions using both PowerShell and GUI tools.

Here’s an outline of the topics he covered:

  • Installation and configuration
    • Installing and creating a Failover Cluster
    • Installing the File Server role
    • Create clustered File Server
    • Create a file share that is continuously available
  • Using a file share that is continuously available
    • Planned move of the cluster group
    • Unplanned failure of the active cluster node
    • Witness service
  • Tips and Tricks
    • Protecting file server services
    • Loopback configurations
    • Using legacy tools
    • Witness service
    • Disabling NetBios over TCP/IP
    • Disable 8.3 name generation
  • Conclusion

You can find this new post in Claus’ blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/clausjor/archive/2012/06/07/smb-transparent-failover-making-file-shares-continuously-available.aspx

Also, if you’re attending TechEd North America, you should catch Claus’ deep dive on SMB Transparent failover titled “WSV410 - Continuously Available File Server: Under the Hood”. This session will be on Thursday, June 14 at 10:15 AM in room N320C . See the details at http://northamerica.msteched.com/topic/details/2012/WSV410