The implementation of advanced SMB3 features is a broad and important set of topics on the Samba roadmap. One of these SMB3 features that is currently being actively worked on is Multi-Channel, a kind of channel bonding at the SMB level intended to increase both performance and fault-tolerance of SMB sessions. It is not only one of the most generally useful features of SMB3 but also a prerequisite for enabling RDMA as a transport for SMB with SMB Direct.

This talk will provide details about the current project to finish the implementation of SMB3 Multi-Channel in Samba, explaining the challenges for development and how they are solved. The presentation will include demos. The talk will conclude with a brief outlook how SMB Direct support can be added to Samba.

Learning Objectives: 1) Refresher on Multi-Channel, 2) State of implementation of Multi-Channel in Samba, 3) Challenges for Samba to implement Multi-Channel, 4) Design of Multi-Channel in Samba, 5) Outlook to SMB Direct support.