Configuring Samba for SMB3

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
1

Hi, I see that the latest My Cloud firmware (4.04.05-101) runs Samba 4.0.0rc5, which supports SMB3. However, out of the box, it is configured to use SMB2.

I’ve changed smb.conf to allow SMB3, and it seems to be working, but can anyone speculate why WD set it to use the slower SMB2?

I was really hoping that the 4.x firmware would have updated Samba to something more recent, but of course that didn’t happen. I use the My Cloud as a destination for CrashPlan backups, so my PC keeps SMB connections open for days, if not weeks at a time. The Samba logs show periodic dropped connections, so I was hoping a newer version of Samba would fix it. Perhaps using SMB3 will help.

2

Unfortunately, no information related to the selection of protocols for the unit is currently available.

It would indeed be a good discussion. I’ll keep my eyes on this thread.

3

Well, that’s unfortunate, but thanks for letting me know. :slight_smile:

I’ll report back how it goes using SMB3 in a couple weeks. By then, using SMB2, there would have been some dropped connections.

4

What, no-one at WD knows how their Samba server is configured…? That’s a bit worrying…

5

I meant to say publicly, as in, in a public WD Support article.

6

Could we prod someone at WD Support into producing some guidance on selection of SMB version? It’s not an unreasonable request, I think, given the varying needs of different SMB clients.

7

I wouldn’t mind prodding someone in WD Engineering to update their Samba version, which is four years old and a release candidate.

1 Like
8

Yes, we need some guidance from WD on this.

While I don’t have a v2.x single bay My Cloud the user manual for it indicates there is an option within the Dashboard of the v2.x single bay My Cloud to use SMB3. For the older v4.x single bay My Clouds one would have to edit the /root/etc/samba/smb-global.conf file and change the max protocol setting from 2 to 3. More info on changing the v4.x SMB setting within the My Cloud is detailed in Windows 10 Specific Method 6 in the Compilation of Windows 10 Methods, Steps and Solutions thread.

9

Starting with the last firmware released, SMB3 is now the default selection. As far as the samba versions included in each package, we provide the gpl source code on the support site for each firmware released which will contain the package versions for samba and everything else.

1 Like
10

Thanks for the info, @Bill_S!

When you say “the last firmware released”, does that include 4.04.05-101, or perhaps you mean for the newer generation My Cloud? Because I just installed 4.04.05-101 and it is still configured for SMB2.

11

I’m assuming that it’s for the new generation My Clouds.

12

The single bay/single drive My Cloud units running v04.04.05-101 still is apparently using SMB2. From the /etc/samba/smb-global.conf file: max protocol = SMB2

13

Bill
The samba source is 4.0.0.rc5. which was released in Dec 11, 2012. This is in the GPL source for 04.04.03-113.
The latest release of sambe is 4.6.0.rc1 released Jan 5 2017.

PS The GPL for the last two releases has not been released to the public.

14

My Linux skills are mediocre, but I wonder what would happen if I managed to follow the build instructions in the GPL source and compiled the latest version of Samba for Debian using 64K pages. Does anyone here have any experience with replacing packages in their My Cloud?

Is there a way of imaging the OS partition to restore it if something goes south?

15

Yes; that’s how we know it’s four years out of date, and only a release candidate, not a full release…

It’s probably time to move to a more recent, FULL release version…You really shouldn’t be releasing product based on release candidates.

Configuration of the Samba server sounds like the subject of a knowledgebase article, rather than leaving users to delve into the GPL code.

16

Just installed my first My Cloud ex2 ultra. Having access issues. What should drive be configured for.
SMB1, 2, or 3 ?
Have 3 windows 10 and 1 windows 8
Computers.
george@theconsultechgroup.com

17

now working, thanks

18

How did you make it work?
Have you enabled the SMBv.1 protocol in Windows 10 or have you specified to use SMBv.3 on My Cloud ex2 ultra NAS drives?
Know if SMBv.3 can be used with My Cloud ex2 ultra.

19

Samba servers (i.e. MyCloud NAS) will negotiate the highest common SMB version with its clients UNLESS there is a “max protocol =” parameter in its smb.conf. Remove that parameter to allow the highest supported SMB version.