Enable Continuous Availability on existing SMB volumes

  • Article

You can enable the SMB Continuous Availability (CA) feature when you create a new SMB volume. You can also enable SMB CA on an existing SMB volume; this article shows you how to do so.

Important

Custom applications are not supported with SMB Continuous Availability.

For more information, see Enable Continuous Availability.

You should enable Continuous Availability for the following workloads/use cases only:

  • Citrix App Layering
  • FSLogix user profile containers, including FSLogix ODFC containers
  • MSIX app attach with Azure Virtual Desktop
    • When using MSIX applications with the CIM FS file format:
      • The number of AVD session hosts per volume shouldn't exceed 500.
      • The number of MSIX applications per volume shouldn't exceed 40.
    • When using MSIX applications with the VHDX file format:
      • The number of AVD session hosts per volume shouldn't exceed 500.
      • The number of MSIX applications per volume shouldn't exceed 60.
    • When using a combination of MSIX applications with both the VHDX and CIM FS file formats:
      • The number of AVD session hosts per volume shouldn't exceed 500.
      • The number of MSIX applications per volume using the CIM FS file format shouldn't exceed 24.
      • The number of MSIX applications per volume using the VHDX file format shouldn't exceed 24.
  • SQL Server
    • Continuous Availability is currently supported on Windows SQL Server.
    • Linux SQL Server is not currently supported.

Important

Using SMB Continuous Availability shares is only supported for Citrix App Layering, SQL Server, FSLogix user profile containers including FSLogix ODFC containers, or MSIX app attach containers. This feature is currently supported on SQL Server on Windows. Any other workload is not supported.

If you are using a non-administrator (domain) account to install SQL Server, ensure the account has the required security privilege assigned. If the domain account does not have the required security privilege (SeSecurityPrivilege), and the privilege cannot be set at the domain level, you can grant the privilege to the account by using the Security privilege users field of Active Directory connections. For more information, see Create an Active Directory connection.

Important

Change notifications are not supported with Continuously Available shares in Azure NetApp Files.

Steps

  1. Select the SMB volume that you want to have SMB CA enabled. Then select Edit.

  2. On the Edit window that appears, select the Enable Continuous Availability checkbox.
    Snapshot that shows the Enable Continuous Availability option.

  3. Reboot the Windows systems connecting to the existing SMB share.

    Note

    Selecting the Enable Continuous Availability option alone does not automatically make the existing SMB sessions continuously available. After selecting the option, be sure to reboot the server immediately for the change to take effect.

  4. Use the following command to verify that CA is enabled and used on the system that’s mounting the volume:

    get-smbconnection | select -Property servername,ContinuouslyAvailable

    You might need to install a newer PowerShell version.

    If you know the server name, you can use the -ServerName parameter with the command. See the Get-SmbConnection PowerShell command details.

Next steps